The currently missing Scream may be Edvard Munch’s best-known painting, but the bleak, horrible emotion running through that work is a good representation of the artist’s overall body of work. In fact, Munch was arguably the world’s most skilled artist at inspiring a feeling of utter dread in those who view his work. “His relentless and self-absorbed despair makes everyone else’s spleen look almost kittenish. Hell, you realise, could be defined as being locked in a small room with Edvard Munch for all eternity; and certainly it seemed that way to Munch himself.”