Edvard Munch
Norwegian, 1863­1944
The Cry
1895
Lithograph on heavy ivory wove paper
51 x 38.5 cm
Clarence Buckingham Collection, 1963.282

The Cry is the artist’s most famous image. He reproduced it many times, and in different media: paintings, drawings, and prints. He described how he came to make the painting: “One evening I was walking along a path, the city was on one side and the fjord below. I felt tired and ill. I stopped and looked out over the fjord—the sun was setting, and the clouds turning blood red. I sensed a scream passing through nature; it seemed to me that I heard the scream. I painted this picture, painted the clouds as actual blood. The color shrieked. This became The Scream.”