Analysis: A timeless image that manages to put us all in the picture

Why has Munch caught the popular public imagination with pictures like The Scream? It is for his haunting imagery, as much as for creating the romantic myth of the artist as a tortured genius.

His idea was that the most genuine art comes from self-expression. He was making art about those thoughts, feelings, of love, death, and psychological space. A century ago that was revolutionary.

l Though the canvas is called The Scream, and we take it to be the figure in the centre that’s screaming, Munch talked about “the great scream in nature”. This was about our place in the universe, and perhaps, that what we feel affects the way we see. This puts you, the viewer in the centre of the picture, particularly since the face is a void, lacking in distinguishing features. It leaves the centre of the picture open for the viewer to project themselves into, which is why it’s so powerful.

Because it’s so iconic, it’s so difficult to understand that sense of power which it has, evidenced by the fact that it’s now the most expensive painting ever sold.

l Everything is mixed up, in the fluidity of the movement within it, and there is that sense of perspective, a foreground that rapidly zooms out into the distance. If you think of every clichéd shot in horror movies, that’s exactly what they do. They have someone screaming in the foreground, and it zooms away or zooms out. Perhaps that’s what we imagine, to ourselves, that anguish looks like.

l&l There’s something sickly in the vivid yellow in the sky that then goes down to the boat, which is streaked through with the hot red of sunset, and the cooling blue. There’s a very unusual combination of colour.

l Although there’s a figure in a top hat, the picture is not tied to the imagery of any period, and that makes it universal; it is why it still works. l Simon Groom is director of the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art.