Carel Willink was strongly influenced by Magic Realism, an avant-garde movement of Dutch modernism closely associated with Surrealism. During the 1920s and 30s, amidst an intellectual and artistic elite hurtling towards abstraction, Willink, along with his contemporaries Wim Schumachter and Pyke Koch, firmly stuck to figurative painting. In 1925 German critic Franz Roh coined the term Magic Realism in his publication Nach-Expressionismus—Magischer Realismus: Probleme der neuesten europäischen Malerei. Like Surrealism, Magic Realism draws inspiration from dream-like images and illusions rather than from the world as we observe. However, in a departure from Surrealism, Willink and other Magic Realists do not seek to represent any psychological or subconscious experiences. Instead of the automatism favoured by the Surrealists, Magic Realists utilise a near-photographic style and meticulous and intentional juxtaposition to depict scenes which exude a sense of mystery and enchantment.

When Wilma, Willink's second wife, passed away in 1960, the artist travelled to Italy. During this extended trip, Willink visited the Bomarzo Gardens, where he came across colossal, weathered sculptures depicting fantastical monsters. The gardens were commissioned by Pier Francesco Orsini, a sixteenth-century condottiere and arts patron who used the sculptures as a way to cope with the loss of his beloved wife. This trip to the Bomarzo Gardens made a deep impression on Willink, as he completed a series of paintings after his visit in which the monsters are featured prominently. De Eeuwige Schreeuw is a beautiful example from this series. Typical of Magic Realism, Willink has rendered the texture of the rocky landscape and the stone surface of the monsters in a technically brilliant fashion, while using the interplay of light and shadow and the drama of the clouds to imbue the work with an ominous and menacing quality.