The Norwegian Edvard Munch (1863 - 1944) is one of the most famous Scandinavian painters. Between fashionable symbolism and nascent expressionism, the author of the famous The Scream is a painter of soul and emotions. His pessimism is not far removed from the philosophy of Arthur Schopenhauer and especially Friedrich Nietzsche. He approaches the themes of death, anguish, and pain in his works, with more lyricism than realism. Spirit of what has been called the "end of the century decadence," Munch has delivered a profoundly biographical work and one of the most unique in the Symbolist movement.