'The Scream' urban legend put to rest by Antwerp University

The white smear seen on the first version of Edvard Munch’s “The Scream” is not, in fact, a bird dropping.

For those unfamiliar with the long-held rumour, the announcement from Antwerp University (UAntwerp) must have seemed strange. But urban legend has long had it that a faint white splotch on the right shoulder of the figure in the Norwegian artist’s earliest version of the iconic painting – there are four versions – was bird poo.

Aside from being a delightful idea, the theory was reinforced by knowledge of Munch’s working methods: He often painted outdoors, insisting that his work be subjected to the forces of nature. Although no formal testing had ever been carried out, the story has continued to resurface as fact over the years.

Norway’s National Museum invited UAntwerp cultural heritage scientist Geert Van der Snickt and his team to Oslo to do some research into Munch’s materials and techniques. Looking into the issue was not the primary goal, “but it would have been a mistake not to exploit the presence of Antwerp’s state-of-the-art equipment to try and settle the long-standing bird dropping dispute,” said Van der Snickt.

The painting, which hangs in Oslo’s National Gallery, was submitted to the Macro X-ray fluorescent scanner, an instrument developed by the university’s Axes research group, which has supplied pivotal arguments on many key works of art, including by Van Eyck and Rubens. Though curators have always been convinced that the smudge was white paint or chalk that had been wiped off, the non-invasive scanner detected no such pigments.

The team was forced to take a micro-sample, which was then analysed using a particle accelerator in a specialist facility in Hamburg by the Antwerp team. PhD student Frederik Vanmeert analysed the sample. “I immediately recognised the diffraction pattern of wax crystals, as I had encountered this material several times when measuring paintings,” he said.

Although beeswax was in the past used as a stabiliser to protect flaking paint, in this case, the experts believe that candle wax simply dripped onto the painting and was wiped away.

“Solving the mystery of the bird droppings on ‘The Scream’ demonstrates how our discipline has much in common with forensic experts,” says Van der Snickt. “Like forensics, the field of cultural heritage science is characterised by a rapid introduction of improved state-of-the-art techniques, and this allows us to bring to light completely new information on iconic works of art.”