Dimensions 31 cm x 23 cm 12" x 9" 300 pieces About The Scream Inspired by a hallucination, the haunting oil painting The Scream by Norwegian-born painter Edvard Munch is an icon of modern art. It is said to symbolize modern spiritual anguish. The Scream is Munch’s interpretation of a scream piercing through nature, experienced by the artist while on a walk after his two companions, as seen in the background of the painting, have left him. While seemingly autobiographical, the subject of the painting is distorted, bearing no physical resemblance to the artist, but rather his anguished state of being. Munch used dramatic lines to convey emotion in his work.