Auction Wednesday December 9 2015 at 15:00
Munch, Edvard(1863-1944)
Attraction I

Lithograph printed in black on thin Japan paper

Sheet: 521x413 mm Image: 472x355 mm
Signed in pencil lower right: E Munch
1896
Woll 75.

Estimate
NOK 300,000–500,000

Auctioned Wednesday December 9 2015 at 15:00

Hammer price NOK 290,000

LITERATURE: Arne Eggum: Edvard Munch The Frieze of Life from Painting to Graphic Art Love – Angst – Death, Oslo 2000.

Munch made an etching in 1895 of the motif Attraction.

In one of these examples, Munch has overpainted with Indian ink and given the scene an arch-like frame as though he had wished to confer sacred overtones on the motif … . The arch-like frame is retained in the lithograph of “Attraction I (from 1896) …, in which he has painted the stone with lithographic ink for the dark parts and formulated the mysterious firmament of stars and the reflections on the sea using lithographic crayon. And by scraping with the needle into the stone, he has also transferred to the lithgraph the effects of the drypoint needle from the etching. Among other things, he used the needle on the lithographic stone to indicate the sharp lines denoting the woman’s hair, which like the force lines of a magnet draw the man towards her. The first known title of this lithograph was “Stars” when it was exhibited as part of the graphic portfolio “The Mirror”.

In “The Tree of knowledge for Good or Evil”, Munch added the following text to the lithograph:

“As we stood facing one anotherAnd my eyes looked into your eyesI felt as though unseen threadsWent from your eyes into my eyesAnd bound our hearts together. P. 82-84.