The Norwegian Museum says Edvard Munch wrote ‘Crazy’ in ‘The Scream’

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) – The National Museum of Norway says that a small, barely visible phrase written in pencil in Edvard Munch’s 1893 masterpiece “The Scream” was written by the Norwegian painter himself.

The painting showing a thigh-like figure holding his head in his hands with his mouth open, has become a global icon for the expression of human anxiety. The phrase – “it may only have been painted by a madman” – was written in the upper left.

The painting is being prepared for exhibition at the new National Museum of Norway to be inaugurated in Oslo, the Norwegian capital, in 2022. In this regard, the canvas has been researched and preserved.

“The writing is certainly Munch’s,” Mai Britt Guleng, curator of the National Museum, said in a statement Monday, adding that it was compared to the painter’s own scribbles in newspapers and letters.

“The same handwriting, as well as the events of 1895, when Munch first showed the painting in Norway, all point in the same direction,” Guleng said.

The writing on the canvas was added after Munch finished painting, but for years it has been a mystery, the museum said in a statement. Speculation has ranged from an act of vandalism by an outraged spectator to something written by Munch himself.

Guleng said the inscription was probably made “in 1895, when Munch first exhibited the painting.”

The painting of the time caused public speculation about Munch’s mental state. During a night of debate in which the artist was present, a young medical student questioned Munch’s mental health and claimed that his work proved to be unsound.

“It is likely that Munch added the inscription in 1895, or shortly thereafter, in response to the judgment on his work,” the statement said.

Munch was deeply hurt by the allegations, returning to the incident again and again in letters and newspaper entries. Both his father and sister suffered episodes of depression and Munch was finally hospitalized after a nervous breakdown in 1908, Guleng said.

The National Gallery was temporarily closed in 2019 to ensure a safe relocation process to the new National Museum, which is currently under construction in central Oslo. The museum will exhibit 400,000 objects ranging from antiquity to the present day and includes paintings, sculptures, drawings, textiles, furniture and architectural models.