The Scream of Nature: The imaginative and iconic works of Edvard Munch

‘The Scream’. It’s one of the most iconic images in the modern world. It’s even inspired an emoji. But why did Munch paint it?

Norwegian painter Edvard Munch created his masterpiece in 1893. He was clear about his mission – he aimed to explore the depiction of extreme human emotion. ‘Just as Leonardo da Vinci studied anatomy and dissected corpses’ he wrote, ‘so I try to dissect souls’.

This talk considers Munch’s powerfully evocative paintings of human mortality, sexual liberation and religious aspiration, expressed through works of intense imagination, colour and mystery.