Final secret of Edvard Munchâs âThe Screamâ revealed A barely legible phrase scribbled on a modern masterpiece gives new insight into the private thoughts of one of the worldâs great painters. Researchers in Norway used infrared photography to analyse the mysterious words scrawled on Edvard Munchâs âThe Screamâ. Â Annar Bjorgli/The National Museum Nina Siegal Save Share 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, written in pencil, at the upper left corner of its frame, reading: âCould only have been painted by a madmanâ.