Background: Kristiania 1895
In October 1895, Munch exhibited The Scream for the first time to a Norwegian audience at the art dealer Blomqvist. The Scream had been shown at several exhibitions abroad since it was painted in 1893, but this was the first time a domestic audience could meet what would become one of the world's most iconic works of art.
The exhibition provoked sharp criticism. Henrik Grosch, then director of the Norwegian Museum of Decorative Arts and Design and art critic, wrote that the paintings showed that one can no longer "consider Munch a serious man with a normal brain". This view was shared by several others in public.
In connection with the exhibition and the criticism, the Student Society in Kristiania held a discussion evening about Munch's art. The background was the criticism the exhibition had generated.
At the Student Society, the poet Sigbjørn Obstfelder, among others, spoke warmly about Munch's art, while others were directly critical. Medical student Johan Scharffenberg questioned Munch's mental state. More specifically, he referred to Self-Portrait with Cigarette, which Scharffenberg believed indicated that Munch was not a normal human being.
This affected Munch, who was probably present himself that evening. As late as the 1930s, Munch brought up this episode several times and his notes are full of self-defence.
"The theory is that Munch wrote this after hearing Scharffenberg's judgment on his mental health, sometime in or after 1895. It is reasonable to assume that he did it quite soon after, either during or following the exhibition in Kristiania," says Mai Britt Guleng, curator at the National Museum.
"Munch was also generally concerned about the idea of hereditary disease in the family. Both his father and grandfather suffered from what was then referred to as melancholy and his sister Laura Munch had been admitted to Gaustad Psychiatric Hospital."
The confirmation that the inscription was made by Munch himself now allows for different interpretations of Munch's creativity and his relationship to his own art.
"The inscription can be read as an ironic comment, but at the same time as an expression of the artist's vulnerability. Writing on the finished painting shows that creating for Munch was a continuous process," says Guleng.
Self-Portrait with Cigarette was purchased by the National Gallery after the exhibition in 1895. The public will be able to view this painting and The Scream when the new National Museum opens in 2022.