Edvard Munch (1863 – 1944) painted several versions of this now-famous painting, parodied zillions of times, called The Scream, including the one above, done in 1893. I stumbled across this article that theorizes why the sky in the background is such a lurid blood-red (aside from representing modern angst).

The scientists at Texas State University determined that Munch must surely have been influenced by the skies over Oslo after the eruption in 1883 of the volcanic island of Krakatoa in Indonesia (made famous for kids everywhere who have read The Twenty-One Balloons). The blast threw dust and gases high into the atmosphere from November 1883 to February 1884. The debris drifted to northern latitudes and created these vividly-colored sunsets throughout Europe, including in Munch’s Norway.