It’s one of the most famous images in the history of the arts.

It’s also an artwork with a title that gives us all a pass on having to have any real knowledge of art, because Edvard Munch’s ‘The Scream’ is a painting and etching of a figure screaming.

Add despair, existential dread, and whatever else you can extrapolate to sound pretentious at a dinner party. Done.

Sorry, not done.

According to the British museum we’ve all been getting it wrong.

Here’s CNN:

With “The Scream” Munch is recalling a personal memory of a spectacular sunset in Oslo which gave the sky and clouds a dramatic red hue, according to Giulia Bartrum, curator of a forthcoming exhibition devoted to the artist at the British Museum in London.

“The blood-red sky had the effect of making him feel hugely anxious,” Bartrum told CNN via telephone. “The artwork is very much a reflection of Munch’s personal mood.”

And the artist wrote an inscription in German on the black and white lithograph version which reads: “I felt the great scream throughout nature.”

Hands over its ears, the ghostly figure is in fact blocking out nature’s scream.

No one was going to get that without a bit of help. On the plus side, ‘nature’s scream’ sounds far more impressive than boring old existential dread.

I guess he isn’t a big fan of the serenity of nature, then, although we can all relate to wanting to curl up in a ball and block out the world around us.

This revelation about the actual meaning behind the painting has come about due to an exhibition titled ‘Edvard Munch: Love and Angst’, which runs at the British Museum from April 11 – July 21. It’s set to be the largest exhibition of the artist’s prints in Britain for 45 years.

‘The Scream’ is the highlight, obviously.

[sources:cnn]