Attraction II

"Attraction II" is one of Munch's most technically ambitious prints, an 1895 etching that explores the magnetic pull between male and female figures through the expressive potential of combined intaglio techniques. The composition shows two figures in a dreamlike embrace or confrontation, their bodies rendered with the burnished highlights and open-bite tonalities that Munch had developed in his earlier experimental plates. The title—"Attraction" rather than "Love" or "Union"—suggests a force that operates independently of human will, a fatal compulsion that draws the figures together even as it threatens to destroy them. This concept of attraction as danger is central to Munch's worldview, shaped by his belief in hereditary illness and the destructive power of erotic desire. The technique is extraordinarily varied: etching establishes the linear structure, drypoint adds velvety depth to the shadows, and burnishing creates the bright highlights that pick out faces and hands from the surrounding darkness. The cream laid Arches paper provides a warm, stable support that absorbs the ink with a slight embossment, giving the printed image a physical presence unusual in works on paper. This plate belongs to the same period as Munch's "Frieze of Life" paintings, and it shares their exploration of the life cycle from love to death, from attraction to separation. Art historians have compared these prints to the contemporary works of Klimt and the Vienna Secession, though Munch's treatment is more raw, less decorative than Austrian Symbolism. The work influenced German Expressionist printmaking directly, particularly the woodcuts of Kirchner and Heckel, who adopted Munch's willingness to distort form for emotional effect.

This mixed-technique etching explored erotic compulsion as fatal force, directly influencing German Expressionist printmaking through its raw distortion and tonal velvety darkness.

It matters because Munch drew two people pulled together by something stronger than love—proving that attraction could look like drowning in cream-colored paper.