(Norwegian: Skrik; created in 1893–1910) is the title of the expressionist painting and prints in a series by Norwegian artist Edvard Munch. It displays an agonized figure against a blood red sky. The landscape in the background is the Oslofjord, viewed from the hill of Ekeberg, in Oslo (then Kristiania), Norway.

One version belonging to the Munch Museum of Oslo is stolen, while another is owned by businessman Nelson Blitz.

The title suggests a depiction of Mary, the mother of Jesus, although it is a highly unusual representation of Mary, who until the 20th century was usually represented in high art as a chaste, mature woman. The figure in this painting appears to be young, perhaps a teenager, and is sensualized, if not eroticized, by her twisting, expressive pose. She stretches her arms behind herself and arches her back, increasing the viewer’s consciousness of her physical body. Yet even in this unusual pose, she embodies some of the key elements of canonical representations of the Virgin: she has a quietness and a calm confidence about her. Her eyes are closed, expressing modesty, but she is simultaneously lit from above; her body is seen, in fact, twisting toward the light so as to catch more of it, even while she does not face it with her eyes. These elements suggest aspects of conventional representations of the Annunciation.

On Sunday, 22 August 2004, Madonna was stolen from the Munch Museum, Oslo (along with the famous painting The Scream, also by Munch), by masked men wielding firearms. The robbers forced the museum guards to lie down on the floor while they snapped the cable securing the paintings to the wall and escaped in a black Audi A6 station wagon, which police later found abandoned.

Edvard Munch places his feelings and emotions deep inside in his paintings. He is a very talented artist, although, his life was more painful than you may think.

Year

Description

1863

Born 12 December in Löten, Norway

1864

The family moves to Kristiania

1868

Mother dies

1877

Sister, Sophia, dies

1879

Begins studies at Kristiania Technical
College

1880

Decides to become a painter, leaves
engineering studies and enrols at the Royal
School of Design in Kristiania

1881

Attends Royal School of Drawing

1885

Travels to Paris

1889

Father dies, Edvard falls into a state
of depression

1889

Munch arranges his first one-man show
at the Student Association in Kristiania

1889

Studies with Léon Bonnat in Paris

1892

Exhibits in Berlin’s Artists’ Association

1906

Completes decorations for Max Reinhardt’s
staging of Henrik Ibsen’s Ghosts in Berlin

1908

Nervous breakdown

1908

Suffers from delusions, is admitted
to Dr. Jacobson’s clinic in Copenhagen

1909

Awarded the Royal Order of St. Olav

1916

Settles on the estate Ekely, near Kristiania

1930

A blood vessel bursts in Munch’s right
eye, he is nearly blind for a while

1933

Awarded the Grand Cross of the Order
of St. Olav

1937

82 works by Munch in German public galleries
confiscated as ‘entartete Kunst’

1940

Bequeaths all works of art in his possession
to the City of Oslo

1944

Dies of pneumonia on 23 January in Ekely,
near Oslo