Against a stark background of one white and two brown vertical bars, Picasso drew, with a continuous black line, what looks like a misshapen boomerang. He then added elements that evoke a ferocious female head seen in profile: two odd-sized eyes, a set of tiny nostrils, three long, scrawny hairs, and four nail-like teeth.

Between 1925 and 1932 Picasso's radical recomposition of the human figure escalated, focusing mostly on the female head and body. The artist had a large arsenal of sources for these brutish creatures: among them were Oceanic and Inuit sculptures, interest in which was being reawakened by the Surrealists at this time. Members of the latter group, who saw women as either Madonnas or monsters, also encouraged the free expression of all the wickedness they perceived within humanity. Similarly, it has been suggested that Picasso's pictorial monsters alluded to personal ones, and more specifically to his wife, Olga, as by then their marriage was rapidly deteriorating.

The Scream was reproduced in the October 1927 issue of La révolution surréaliste, at the time still unsigned.