Edvard Munch was out walking in Oslo (then called Kristiania) when he conceived the idea of The Scream. This painting (there are two versions of it) has come to represent the anxiety and insecurities of the human condition.

Munch was always emotionally insecure – this is clearly shown in such paintings as Melancholy and Ashes. “I do not believe in art which is not the compulsive result of Man’s urge to open his heart”, he once stated, and his work was hugely influential on the German Expressionists and other movements in painting.

Munch’s paintings have broken auction records, and The Scream is the second-most expensive painting ever sold at open auction. It has also been stolen twice. The work has entered popular culture in a way very few other art works have ever done.

Learn about the troubled man behind the art and hear fascinating stories about the life and impact of an iconic painting.