Uncover the Mystery: Top 9 Fun Facts About 'The Scream' Painting You Never Knew

1. Sarcastic Art Thieves

Who needs a full-blown security system when you can just leave a cheeky note instead? Watch and learn from the notorious art-nappers of 1994: Edvard Munch's "The Scream" was snatched from the National Gallery in Oslo after cutting a single wire and sarcastically bantering about the lackadaisical security. The masterpiece was later found safe at a nearby hotel before getting nabbed once more in 2004, kicking off a riveting sequel where it endured minor scrapes and close encounters with other stolen paintings. Plot twist: another version of "The Scream" lives in secret luxury after being sold for a cool $119.9 million in 2012.
Source => history.com

2. Punk Rock Scream

If The Scream were an angsty teenager, it'd be part of a punk rock band called "The Frieze of Life", belting out tunes about love, death, and existential dread: As it happens, Edvard Munch's masterpiece is actually a series of four paintings, exploring these themes, with variations in oil, tempera, and pastel from 1893 to 1910, residing in prestigious institutions to mysterious private collections.
Source => khanacademy.org

Did you know the famous artist behind "The Scream," Edvard Munch, had a secret? Discover how this agoraphobic painter spent the last 35 years of his life and how it influenced his iconic art.

=> Fun Facts about Edvard-Munch

3. Franchise-worthy Masterpiece

When Edvard Munch decided to turn his eerie masterpiece into a screaming franchise: The most famous version of "The Scream," a pastel-on-board piece from 1895, lived a charmed life in the hands of Norwegian businessman Petter Olsen, whose dad was chummy with the artist, before being auctioned off at Sotheby's in 2012 for a startling $119.9 million!
Source => nytimes.com

4. Cloud Conundrum

Behold the cloud conundrum: when Edvard Munch's sky went from mundane to macabre, he didn't just have his head in the clouds—he had a tête-à-tête with nacreous clouds, no less! According to a study featured in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, these rare polar clouds, only seen during winter months, are the likely source of inspiration for the iconic, eerie ambiance in The Scream painting, debunking the previous theory of volcanic sunsets as Munch's muse.
Source => journals.ametsoc.org

5. Lithograph Selfies

If The Scream were a modern-day artist, it might have an Instagram page filled with lithograph selfies in various filters: But before social media even existed, Edvard Munch was the original “influencer” in the art world. He created around thirty versions of The Scream using lithography, a common printmaking technique at the time, experimenting with colored paper, hand-colored watercolors, and removing the title and text. This allowed Munch to ink the image in reverse to ensure these "alternative" Screams maintained the same composition as his famous painting.
Source => moma.org

6. Misunderstood Emoji

The timeless tale of misunderstood emoji-fication: Edvard Munch's "The Scream" protagonist isn't actually screaming its lungs out like the emoji twin it inspired, but rather recoiling in horror from a scream echoing through nature itself! In a plot twist revealed by the rarely-seen black-and-white lithograph inscription on display at the British Museum, the iconic figure in this anxiety-inducing artwork is actually reacting to an eerie scream that Munch sensed permeating the air, and not directly emoting distress as it's commonly misinterpreted.
Source => insider.com

7. Mis-screamed Secrets

Oops! You've Mis-screamed: Contrary to popular belief, the tormented soul in Edvard Munch's The Scream isn't letting out the mother of all wails. This unsettled figure is merely vibing to the tunes of anxiety and dread, with artistically exaggerated hands and a skull-shaped head to amp up the dissonance party.
Source => khanacademy.org

8. Orange Sherbet Meltdown

If The Scream were an ice cream flavor, it would be Orange Sherbet Meltdown: its once vibrant orange and red hues have been giving way to a more ghostly white complexion. Art conservators, armed with x-rays, lasers, and electron microscopes, have traced the cause to the infamous 19th-century cadmium yellow paint, a popular choice among artists like Matisse and van Gogh, which is now known for its dramatic aging process.
Source => overstockart.com

9. The Swiped Saga

"The Scream" painting might as well be renamed "The Swiped," as it seems to have a penchant for playing hide-and-seek with Norwegian art thieves: One version of the iconic masterpiece was stolen not once, but twice in Norway. The first heist occurred in 1994 during the Winter Olympics, and luckily, it was recovered undamaged months later. But in 2004, the same version and another Munch painting were nabbed from the Munch Museum in Oslo, only to be found after a few months with minor damages.
Source => history.com