The impact and importance of a painting's title is vividly demonstrated in the case of this work by the Norwegian Symbolist/Expressionist Edvard Munch.

Munch created several versions of this striking image of a helpless man in the embrace of a scarlet-haired woman. As originally entitled Love and Pain, it can be seen as a a depiction of desolation and consolation, a distraught man in the arms of love. Their relationship is a mystery, but the man is clearly surrendering himself in a sea of darkness, as if to plead for - what? Understanding, forgiveness, solace, companionship or the return of his desire?

Later known as 'Vampire,' the work takes on a potentially sinister connotation. The crimson tresses seem to suggest blood, the man seems suddenly drained of life and the darkness surrounding the pair becomes her domain..

As a visual metaphor depicting the femme fatale draining the life from her beguiled victim or as a literal vision of a blood-drinker at the throat of her prey, 'Vampire' has become a part of the familiar imagery of gothic culture, associated with the poetry of Baudelaire in The Flowers of Evil, with whom the artist was familiar.