Munch may have seen this mummy at the 1889 World's Fair in Paris. It was buried in an embryonic position with its hands along its face and also impressed Paul Gauguin, becoming the model for figures in more than twenty of his paintings, including the figure in the painting "Human Misery" and the old man on the left in the painting "Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going?"
It has also been suggested that the inspiration may have been a mummy in the Florence Museum of Natural History, which is even more similar to the figure in the painting. However, this theory has been questioned because Munch did not visit Florence until after he painted The Scream.
