“If you look carefully in the background of The Scream, the couple on the bridge are both Robson Green”
– Little In The Way Of Sunshine
So… what do we know about The Scream?
The A to Z of HMHB
The A to Z of HMHB
“If you look carefully in the background of The Scream, the couple on the bridge are both Robson Green”
– Little In The Way Of Sunshine
So… what do we know about The Scream?
this leaden paul
Properly ‘Der Schrei der Natur‘, the Scream of Nature. Regularly stolen. One version was purchased by a Leon Black for nearly US$120 million; perhaps he should have curbed his enthusiasm.
16 October 2016
Chris The Siteowner
Damn you JPEG compression! The two superimposed heads of Robson Green looked great on my computer screen.
16 October 2016
Brumbiscuit
I hate to be contrary, TLP, but in Norwegian it’s simply ‘Skrik’, or ‘Scream’. I’m assuming Munch used Bokmål and so it means ‘Scream’ or ‘Shriek’ without the definite article. I’m sure the addition of the ‘the’ has been debated at length elsewhere, but I’m curious as to why it has been changed from Munch’s title. I’m not sure where the expanded German title emanates from thobut…
16 October 2016
Archie dream Walker
Once I saw this painting I immediately thought back to a dream I’d had in childhood, aged about 6, I was screaming and screaming in my dream, until it was deafening and I woke.
16 October 2016
Peter mcornotholgist
Loathed by Hitler. Jealousy ?
16 October 2016
dickhead in quicksand
“Skrik” in both versions of Norwegian Wiki.
“Der erste deutsche Titel, den Munch dem Werk gab, war Schrei der Natur; auf eine graphische Fassung schrieb Munch auf Deutsch: „Ich fühlte das große Geschrei durch die Natur.” The original German title which Munch gave to the work was “Schrei der Natur”, from his written comment (in German) on one version, “I sensed a huge cry throughout Nature”.
Of course, that doesn’t address the question of when and how the definite article crept in.
For one reason or another (probably childish), the Norwegian hatnotes amused me immoderately:
Bokmal: For den amerikanske skrekkfilmen fra 1996, se Skrik (film)
Nynorsk: For andre tydingar, sjå skrik (fleirtyding)
At least the alternative title “Bad Trip on Blackpool Pier” never caught on, or we’d be forever discussing which one.
17 October 2016
Jeff dReadnought
As in English, the German noun “scream” is the same as the imperative form of the verb, so maybe the definite article is to avoid ambiguity. That would also explain the alternative German title for the painting, “Geschrei” (taken by Munch’s original note in German cited by DIQ above), which doesn’t have the definite article.
17 October 2016
brumbiscuit
Plenty to educate the Norwegian reader here:https://www.nrk.no/kultur/dette-visste-du-ikke-om-_skrik_-1.10920316 including the fact that there’s bird shit on one of the four versions.
17 October 2016
Liquid len
Often hung in galleries next to Water Lilies (Nympheas) which just goes to show that where there’s Munch, there’s Monet.
17 October 2016
dr desperate
Disappointing that the artist was born 100 years too early to have married Naga Off Strictly, or she could have changed her name to Munchetty-Munch.
17 October 2016
EXXO
Often used to give context to the practice of modal verbs for deduction.
Is it a woman?
‘It must be a man. It can’t be a woman. At that time women had more hair.’
‘It could be a a woman, but it’s unlikely’.
‘Why is he screaming?’
‘He could be expressing existential angst in a world where all hope is illusory’
‘He might have forgotten his lunch.’
Is that the sea or a lake?
‘It must be the sea – those are big ships, not small boats.
‘They could be models. It could be the marine lake. My hovercraft has been struck by lightning.’
What time of day was it painted?
‘It must have been the evening – look at the sky.’
‘But it might have been early morning.’
‘It can’t have been – why would that couple be out walking at that time?’
‘It might be mid-winter in Norway, when the sun rises after people go to work.’
‘But he doesn’t look like he’s on his way to work.’
‘He might have just remembered it’s a bank holiday.’
etc, etc. Hours of fun. Works with any work of art with a bit of mystery about it, including many songs of course.
17 October 2016
dr desperate
“I used to object to that A-Ha song, ‘The Sun Always Shines on TV’; but then I remembered that Morten Harket & Co came from Norway, so it could be correct, as long as they restricted themselves to purely local programming. They didn’t stipulate.”
(Dr JCC)
17 October 2016
Huddersfield’s very own… Steve malkmus
Reminds me of the opening credits to “Newman and Baddiel (q.v.) in Pieces”.
18 October 2016
dr Desperate
If you infrared-scan carefully in the top left-hand corner, Munch wrote “Can only have been painted by a madman”.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-56127530
22 February 2021