Edvard Munch wrote 'madman' Scream graffiti on painting, scans show - BBC News

Artist Edvard Munch wrote mysterious graffiti on his painting of The Scream, infrared scans have shown.

Now, new tests made by The National Museum of Norway have confirmed they were made by the man himself.

The original painting, first displayed in Munch's home city Oslo (then Kristiania) in 1893, has become a radical and timeless expression of human anxiety.

The artwork has undergone conservation in preparation for its instalment in the new museum, which is due to open in the Norwegian capital next year.

The museum came to the conclusion the words were written by Munch, after using technology to analyse the handwriting and compare it with his own diaries and letters.

"The handwriting itself, as well as events that happened in 1895, when Munch showed the painting in Norway for the first time, all point in the same direction.".

The work provoked strong criticism at the time along with public speculation around Munch's mental state.

Both Munch's father and sister suffered bouts of depression and Munch was finally hospitalised after a nervous breakdown in 1908.

"For as long as I can remember I have suffered from a deep feeling of anxiety which I have tried to express in my art," Munch wrote.

The Scream will be displayed with a number of Munch's other works, including Madonna, The Dance of Life and Self-Portrait with Cigarette, in The National Museum of Norway from 2022.

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