The Scream by Edvard Munch

     The Scream by Norwegian Artist Edvard Munch was painted in 1893 and is an example of an expressionist painting. The scene in the  painting is the view from a road overlooking Oslo, the Oslofjord, and Hovedoya, from the hill of Ekeberg. This painting was an early example of expressionism, and art movement that emphasized the subjective inner feelings of the artist, and was part of a series of paintings by Munch called The Frieze of Life in which he explored the themes of love, fear, death, melancholia, and anxiety. This painting was part of the pre-WWI anxiety that developed as the looming chaos approached. (Yale Press)
      The painting uses simplified forms and broad bands of garish color while employing a high viewpoint. This technique reduced the figure to a skull in the throes of an emotional crisis where anxiety is instantly instilled into the viewer. This painting also strays from the earlier styles of Munch, Naturalism and Impressionism, by creating a very subjective piece of art that displays the agony of the painter and evokes anxiety. The sexless creature in the foreground emits an infinite scream through nature. (The Scream, Wikipedia)
       The theme of anxiety is resonated in the intense colors that create a hellish background and by the soundless scream that is being emitted by the sexless creature in the foreground. This anxiety is coupled with the loneliness of the figure as it is alone in its throngs of agony as two figures in the top left background spectate from afar. This evokes the sense of the figure being utterly alone and with no hope of another to calm the suffering.(The Scream, Wikipedia)