“The Scream” by Edvard Munch is one of the most enduring paintings in the world.
His androgynous muse seems to be in some kind of agony and bold waves of colors dominate the viewer. But what appears in the upper left corner of the masterpiece has intrigued the art world for decades. It says: “It could only have been painted by a madman.”
It was speculated that a vandal somehow inscribed the words in the 1893 painting, but the New York Times reported that curators at the National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design in Norway determined that the words were written by Munch himself.
Mai Britt Guleng, one of the curators, told the Times that she had been examining the inscription “letter by letter” and concluded that it is “identical in every way to Munch’s handwriting”.
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“So there is no longer any doubt,” he said.
The BBC reported that “The Scream” is the second most recognizable work of art ever created, after only “Mona Lisa” by master Leonardo da Vinci. The report said that Munch created four versions of the painting, but the most famous was from 1893. There is a theory that the figure in the painting is a self-portrait of Munch.
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The Times reported that Munch took a diary and said the painting was inspired by a “blast of melancholy”.
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The inscription is not large enough to be noticed with the naked eye and the Times said curators used infrared photography to decipher the letters. The report said that the N and D written on the inscription led researchers to determine, “This is Munch.”