Experts find the person who scribbled on Edvard Munch’s famous painting “The Scream”

Few have never come across Edvard Munch’s The Scream. The painting is known for evoking emotions in people. So much so that someone scrawled in Norwegian in the top left corner of the painting: “Could only have been painted by a madman!” The mystery of who wrote these powerful words has fascinated people since the words were first found in 1904, eleven years after they were painted in 1893. Now, the revelation of who actually wrote them has left them incredibly surprised, according to the Norwegian National Museum.

Surprisingly, the hidden message, filled with disbelief, was not written by a hater or a gallery-goer who was enchanted or unsettled by the enchanting artwork. Nor were the scribbles a work of vandalism. In fact, it was the painter himself who wrote these words. The phrase hidden in the sky was never widely known, according to the museum. Mai Britt Guleng, curator of the National Museum, has studied Munch and his works, especially “The Scream,” in detail since the gallery closed and identified the artist’s handwriting. The painting was examined using an infrared camera, which did not affect the painting but revealed the phrase along with the handwriting, which is not easily discernible without devices.

“You have to get very close to see the inscription. We rarely find such inscriptions on paintings, especially not on one of the most famous in the world. Given that it is such an important work in the history of international art, the inscription has received remarkably little attention,” Guleng said. “The writing is without a doubt Munch’s own. The handwriting itself, as well as events from 1895, when Munch first showed the painting in Norway, all point in the same direction,” the curator told the BBC. The handwriting has been compared to Munch’s diaries and letters from the period, CBS News reported, and researchers have interpreted them as identical.

“The theory is that Munch wrote this after hearing Scharffenberg’s verdict on his mental state sometime in 1895 or after. It is reasonable to assume that he did it quite soon after, either during or after the exhibition in Kristiania,” explained Guleng. The artist was deeply affected by people’s perceptions of him and his painting, and the harsh criticism it received from art critics and the public. “It was very important for him to take control of his own self-understanding and also how others understood him. This was perhaps an act of control because others had said he was crazy, but he said, ‘I can make a joke about that,'” the curator told The Guardian.

“Munch was also generally concerned about the idea of ​​hereditary disease in the family. Both his father and grandfather suffered from what was then called melancholy, and his sister Laura Munch had been admitted to the Gaustad psychiatric hospital,” Guleng pointed out. “The inscription can be read as an ironic comment, but at the same time as an expression of the artist’s vulnerability. Writing on the finished painting shows that creating was a continuous process for Munch.” Munch even went so far as to write: “For as long as I can remember, I have suffered from a deep sense of anxiety, which I have tried to express in my art. Without this anxiety and illness, I would have been like a ship without a rudder,” according to the BBC.