X-post from Lounge: "The Scream" mystery solved - didn't sound that mysterious!

[UTUSN]

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https://nypost.com/2021/02/22/edvard-munch-wrote-hidden-madman-message-on-the-scream/

Edvard Munch wrote hidden ‘madman’ message on ‘The Scream’

.... The pencil inscription reads: “Can only have been painted by a madman,” infrared scans have shown.

And though historians have long known about the phrase, small and hidden among the distorted brushstrokes that make up the howling figure, there’s been some speculation that it was graffitied by an observer, not the Norwegian artist. ....

The mysterious origins of the phrase help complete a sad picture: Munch created the painting, which has now become a universal symbol for mortal anxiety, just after his sister Laura was committed to an asylum with bipolar disorder.

Though the screaming figure doesn’t look like him, it’s believed to be influenced by his own experience of observing a blood red sky after being abandoned by two companions, seen in the background. In that moment, he was hit by a “gust of melancholy,” according to his diary.

After Munch unveiled the painting, reactions centered on his own mental health, rather than the painting itself.

The experts said it stands to reason that Munch wrote the “madman” inscription after struggling with the many critical reviews at the time. In 1908, he suffered a mental breakdown. ....

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[Sinistrous]

1. Thank you.

[UTUSN]

2. You're welcome. Glad to serve talented people in this Group if possible!

[lunatica]

3. And thus, art therapy was born

Of all the explanations I’ve heard about this painting, this is the one that makes sense.

One important thing about this painting is that probably everyone gets it on a personal level. There is a scream that lives in all of us.

This is the perfect timing for posting this painting after the nightmare of the last 4 years!

[UTUSN]

4. I had no idea the 2 figures in the back had a relation to the artist. I thought

they were just random, indifferent figures, oblivious to the angst of the protagonist.

And your commentary always adds layers and depth to all that you address.

[lunatica]

5. I also thought the figures were there

to depict his terrible loneliness.

I always look at paintings on an emotional level. Or, better said, I react on an emotional level. Starting with how it makes me feel. Then I like to explain why. Sometimes I get it right.