![Edvard Munch - The Scream [1895] by Gandalf's Gallery](http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2856/12516186635_baa1625938.jpg)
The version auctioned during the May 2012 sale dates from 1895, and is one of four versions of the composition and is distinguished in several remarkable ways: it is the most colourful and vibrant of the four; the only version whose original frame was hand-painted by the artist to include his poem detailing the work's inspiration; and the only version in which one of the two figures in the background turns to look outward onto the cityscape. This version was never before on public view in either the UK or US, except briefly in the National Gallery in Washington D.C. decades ago. Moreover, at the time of auction this work was the only version available in private hands - owned by Norwegian businessman Petter Olsen, whose father Thomas was a friend, neighbour and patron of Munch.
As the defining image of the Expressionist movement, The Scream stands as a pivotal work in the history of art. Munch created the image in the mid-1890s as the central element of his celebrated Frieze of Life series. The powerfully-rendered, blood-red sky presents the viewer with the reality of Munch's experience at the moment he is gripped by anxiety in the hills above Oslo. Like his Dutch contemporary Vincent van Gogh, Munch's desire was to paint a new form of reality rooted in psychological experience, rather than visual. It is this projection of Munch's mental state that was so artistically innovative – a landscape of the mind, whose impact is still felt in the art of today.
[Sold for $119,900,000 at Sotheby’s, New York - Pastel on board, 79 x 59 cm]