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The Scream by Munch: a figure clutching its face on a bridge beneath a wavy sky. An art printable that sparks talks about feelings; get the free PDF.
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Download PDFPrintA figure with hands on its face, round eyes and an open mouth on a railed bridge, two people in the distance and a sky and landscape of waves.
Color the sky in fiery oranges and reds and the water in deep blues.
Draw a face showing a different feeling, like joy or surprise, in the same landscape.
Two versions of The Scream were stolen, in 1994 and in 2004, and both were recovered.
The Scream by Munch may be the most famous picture of anxiety ever made. Norwegian artist Edvard Munch painted it in 1893, and its figure clutching its face has become a symbol recognized around the globe, so much so that it inspired the face-screaming emoji.
Munch wrote about how the idea came to him. He was walking with two friends at sunset near what is now Oslo when the sky suddenly turned blood red. He stopped, exhausted, and sensed an enormous, endless scream passing through nature. So the figure is not screaming. It is covering its ears against a scream that fills everything.
Munch did not want to paint what his eyes saw but what he felt. The wavy lines of the sky and water seem to ripple and spread the figure's unease, while the straight bridge slices through the scene. This way of painting emotions helped shape expressionism, an art movement focused on showing the inner world.
There are several versions of The Scream, including paintings, pastels and prints, mostly kept in museums in Oslo. It reminds us that everyone feels scared or nervous sometimes, and that expressing our feelings through drawing, writing or talking can help us feel better.
