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EDVARD MUNCH

‘The Scream’: newly-released Munch originals reveal different look

Surprisingly different initial versions of Norwegian art icon Edvard Munch's signature work 'The Scream' have seen the light of day after over 7,600 sketches, many previously unknown, were published for unrestricted use.

Published: 12 March 2018 19:05 CET
'The Scream': newly-released Munch originals reveal different look
File photo: Cornelius Poppe / NTB scanpix

Among the released drawings are sketches showing how 'The Scream' looked before the world-famous version, reports Norwegian newspaper Dagbladet.

Over a hundred years on from a fateful stroll in Oslo's Ekeburg, when a blood-red sunset gave Edvard Munch the inspiration for what later became the work for which he is arguably best known, the Munch Museum is releasing previously unknown sketches and drawings by the Norwegian artist.

The museum is publishing for unrestricted use pictures of all the artist's drawings gathered in a new database, Dagbladet writes.

Among the works being published are also previously unknown sketches for 'The Scream' — a painting that was no simple task for Munch, with the database evidencing several attempts.

“We want the art to be available to people everywhere,” director of the Munch Museum Stein Olav Henrichsen told Dagbladet.

“There are especially two reasons why we wanted to digitalise all Munch's drawings. The first reason was that the drawings were unknown. The second was that digitalising the entire collection was truly a dream of ours. Digitalisation is something museums all over the world have struggled with and work towards, and we want Munch to be present in a digital world,” Henrichsen added.

The Munch Museum has received 22 million kroner (2.3 million euros) in support from the Bergesen Foundation, a non-profit foundation benefitting social and humanitarian projects, Dagbladet reports.

Of the 22 million kroner, 12 million has been allocated to digitalisation of the drawings, and 10 million will later be used to digitalise all other works of art, including graphic works, photos, paintings and sculptures. The funds will also finance a new biography on Edvard Munch, which is being launched internationally.

Four art historians have spent four years systemising, scanning and digitalising the drawings. In total, they have entered 7644 drawings into the database.

The collection is available for everyone — Munch's works, including the early versions of 'The Scream', can be searched in the electronic collection available on the Munch Museum's website.

READ ALSO: Weird clouds may have inspired Norwegian 'The Scream': scientists

EDVARD MUNCH

Weird clouds may have inspired Norwegian ‘The Scream’: scientists

The psychedelic clouds in Edvard Munch's iconic "The Scream" have alternatively been interpreted as a metaphor for mental anguish or a literal depiction of volcanic fallout.

Published: 24 April 2017 15:18 CEST
Weird clouds may have inspired Norwegian 'The Scream': scientists
File photo: Terje Bendiksby/NTB scanpix

On Monday, scientists hypothesised that the Norwegian painter's inspiration may in fact have been rare clouds which form in cold places at high altitude.

The first version of “The Scream” was released in 1893. It depicts a dark humanlike figure clutching its head in apparent horror against the backdrop of a swirling, red-orange sky.

In 2004, American astronomers theorised that Munch had painted a sky brightly coloured by particle pollution from the 1883 Krakatoa volcanic eruption.

But the new paper, presented at a meeting of the European Geosciences Union in Vienna, said he more likely depicted a rare sighting of “mother-of-pearl” clouds over Oslo.

A volcanic outburst does not account for the “waviness” of Munch's clouds, Helene Muri, a researcher at the University of Oslo, told journalists in Vienna.

Furthermore, volcano-tinted sunsets tend to be common for several years after an outburst, “whereas Munch's scary vision was seemingly a one-time experience, the way he described it in his journal,” she said.

In his diary, Munch wrote of the sky turning suddenly blood red.

Mother-of-pearl or “nacreous” clouds, require unusual conditions to form very cold temperatures in the atmosphere, in a high altitude band of about 20-30 kilometres.

They tend to appear at high latitudes in winter.

Because they are thin, these clouds are typically not visible during daytime, but before sunrise or after sunset.

“We do know that there were mother-of-pearl clouds in the Oslo area in the late 19th century,” said Muri.

READ ALSO: Munch portrait seized in drug smuggler's flat

At least one scientist documented the phenomenon and wrote “they are so beautiful you could believe you are in another world”, she added.

Similar sightings of nacreous clouds over southeast Norway in 2014, and their striking resemblance to Munch's painting, is what sparked the latest research.

“Edvard Munch could well have been terrified when the sky all of a sudden turned 'bloodish red',” the researchers concluded.

“Hence, there is a high probability that it was an event of mother-of-pearl clouds which was the background for Munch's experience in nature, and for his iconic Scream.”

Muri conceded the latest was but “another hypothesis”.

“There are other hypotheses. But of course, we are natural scientists, we tend to look for answers in nature, whilst the psychologists have suggested it was inner torment that made Munch paint 'The Scream'.”