The original oil painting executed in 1967 was painted in Buffet’s unmistakable style: the protagonist is outlined with dramatic black lines, combined with flat areas of vivid colour, enhancing the portrait’s intensity. While the figure in Le Cri doesn’t have Buffet’s clowns’ characteristic red nose, it has their iconic electric red hair, white skin, mole and blasé gaze. The character in Le Cri also stands out from Buffet’s clowns due to its scream, which gives the painting its name. The subject is clearly reminiscent of Edvard Munch’s ‘Skrik’ (The Scream), however, while the protagonist in Munch’s painting is petrified and filled with dread, Le Cri’s is dead-eyed and listless, giving its scream a futile quality and in so doing, speaking to the absurdity of the human experience.
Buffet’s distinctive graphic style and use of colour have left a legacy in modern art history that continues to influence new generations of contemporary artists who use figurative elements to convey complex concepts and ideas. Le Cri stands out as one of the most iconic and important paintings within this very legacy; indeed, Buffet was so pleased with Le Cri that he created a lithograph edition of 250 prints with proofs of the subject in 1968.