The figure in The Scream isn’t actually screaming. Instead, the hands are placed over the ears, to shield them from an infernal shriek. The real scream, Munch claims, came from the surroundings around the person. He wrote ‘I felt a large scream pass through nature’ in German at the bottom of this lithograph of the famous painting.

This print is on display in Edvard Munch: love and angst an exhibition of 83 artworks opening this week at The British Museum. This is the largest show of his prints in the UK for 45 years and includes 50 items from Oslo’s Munch Museum.

The BM has also written a blogpost of ten things you might now know about The Scream.

The exhibition is open until 21 July 2019.