One of modern art’s greatest mysteries has finally been solved.
Over the years, the hidden message in Edvard Munch’s famous painting titled “The Scream" baffled experts and art aficionado's.
The barely visible note, written in the top-left corner of the 1893 masterpiece, reads: "Can only have been painted by a madman.” Speculation about the note has varied with the most popular theory being that it was an act of vandalism from an outraged viewer or art aficionado.
But it turns out, the “madman” painter himself was behind it.
CNN reports that an investigation of the work revealed Munch was responsible for the inscription.
The claim comes from the National Museum of Norway.
The outlet notes that curators used “infrared technology to analyze the message,” which they say was added after the painting’s completion.
They compared the handwriting on the famed artwork to Munch’s notes and letters, and even studied the events surrounding the public showing.
"The writing is without a doubt Munch's own," Mai Britt Guleng, the museum's curator, concluded. "The handwriting itself, as well as events that happened in 1895, when Munch showed the painting in Norway for the first time, all point in the same direction."
The curators added that the critical response from the public likely prompted him to make the addition.
"At a discussion night at the Students Association, where Munch is believed to have been present, the young medical student Johan Scharffenberg questioned Munch's mental health claiming that his paintings proved he was not of sound mind," the museum said.
"It is likely that Munch added the inscription in 1895, or shortly after in response to the judgment on his work."
Munch detailed feeling hurt by the accusations in letters and diary entries.
The painting, which shows a figure holding its head in its hands with its mouth open, has become a well-known representation of human anxiety.
The painting is being prepared to be exhibited at the new National Museum of Norway due to open in Oslo in 2022.
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