March 13, 2025
Beyond the Scream: Munch's Portraits at the National Portrait Gallery
A 2025 London show revealed a lesser-known Edvard Munch — not the painter of existential dread, but a searching, tender portraitist of the people in his life.
Everyone knows 'The Scream'. Far fewer know Edvard Munch the portraitist. The National Portrait Gallery's 2025 exhibition set out to change that, presenting the Norwegian master's portraits of the friends, patrons, collectors and family who populated his turbulent world.
Away from the swirling anxiety of his most famous images, these paintings show a more intimate Munch — alert to character, mood and the fragile inner lives of his sitters.
It was the first UK exhibition devoted to this side of his work, and it deepened the picture of an artist too often reduced to a single, screaming face.
Image: “Edvard Munch - The Scream - Google Art Project” — Edvard Munch, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.