Art mystery solved: who wrote on Edvard Munchâs The Scream? Weâre sorry, this service is currently unavailable. Please try again later. Dismiss By Nina Siegal Save Normal text size Edvard Munchâs The Scream, from 1893, is one of the worldâs most famous paintings, but for years art historians have mostly ignored a tiny inscription in pencil at the upper-left corner of its frame, reading: âCould only have been painted by a madman.â Who wrote the sentence there? Some thought a disgruntled viewer might have vandalised the work; others imagined it was the artist himself. But if so, why?