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Edvard Munch | Quotes / Aforismi

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I was walking along a path with two friends - the sun was setting - suddenly the sky turned blood red - I paused, feeling exhausted, and leaned on the fence - there was blood and tongues of fire above the blue-black fjord and the city - my friends walked on, and I stood there trembling with anxiety - and I sensed an infinite scream passing through nature.

Quote of an entry in his Diary (22 January 1892), on the experience which inspired his famous painting, '(The Scream🎨)' ('Shrik'), originally titled: 'Der Schrei der Natur' ('The Cry of Nature')

Camminavo lungo la strada con due amici, quando il sole tramontò. Il cielo si tinse all'improvviso di rosso sangue. Mi fermai. Mi appoggiai, stanco morto a un recinto. Sul fiordo nero azzurro e sulla città, c'erano sangue e lingue di fuoco. I miei amici continuavano a camminare ed io tremavo ancora di paura e sentivo che un grande urlo, infinito, pervadeva la Natura. I colori hanno urlato.

Citazione di una voce del suo diario (22 gennaio 1892) sull'esperienza che ha ispirato il suo famoso dipinto "(The Scream🎨)" ("Shrik"), originariamente intitolato: "Der Schrei der Natur" ("The Cry of Nature")


  • A work of art can only come from the interior of man. Art is the form of the image formed upon the nerves, heart, brain and eye of man.
  • No longer shall I paint interiors, and people reading, and women knitting. I shall paint living people who breathe and feel and suffer and love.
  • The Academies of Art are nothing but great painting factories - those with talent are fed in at one end, and they come out as mechanical painting machines.

  • If what you want to paint is the emotive mood in all its strength ... then you must not sit and stare at everything and depict it exactly as one sees it.
  • In my art I have tried to explain to myself life and its meaning. I have also tried to help others to clarify their lives.
  • Nature is not only what is visible to the eye - it also shows the inner images of the soul - the images on the back side of the eyes.



  • From my rotting body, flowers shall grow and I am in them and that is eternity.
  • Dal mio corpo in putrefazione cresceranno dei fiori, e io sarò dentro di loro: questa è l'eternità.
  • Non dipingo quello che vedo, ma quello che visto.
  • Lascio la donna nel suo paradiso, le spine della rosa sono troppo appuntite.
  • L’arte si nutre del sangue dell’artista.