Erich Heckel - Drei Akte - image-1

Lot 410 D

Erich Heckel - Drei Akte

Auction 1033 - overview Cologne
30.05.2014, 18:00 - Modern Art
Estimate: 20.000 € - 25.000 €
Result: 24.400 € (incl. premium)

Erich Heckel

Drei Akte
1929

Watercolour and coloured chalks on laid paper with watermark "ZANDERS" 55 x 68.3 cm Framed under glass. Monogrammed, dated and titled 'Drei Akte E.H. 29' (Three Nudes) in pencil lower margin. - In very good condition with fresh colours.

Three female figures have been composed in different poses, sheltered under an arch-shaped branch and situated in front of dense forest foliage. Because of the round, curvilinear forms and the symbolic triad, the composition appears especially balanced, standing in harmonious accord with itself. Erich Heckel, who was among the founders of the artists' group “Brücke”, had made his way to a calmer, less vehement expressive idiom in the 1920s, an idiom characterised by the new clarity and order of its compositions.
Compared to the Expressionist works, the form of the arch - which is set forth in the light green in the left half of the image - as well as the general concentration on nature display a tranquil pictorial composition, which seems to reflect an altered attitude towards life following the First World War. Heckel often made use of sketches and impressions carried out along the way, which were then composed in the studio according to his inner concept. He was less concerned with the depiction of private experience than a general discourse on human existence. The theme of bathers along the seaside had always been of great significance to Heckel - questioning, as it does, the relationship between humankind and nature in general. Behind it there stands the ideal vision of an inner unity of unaffected human beings, Eden-like, in their full naturalness.

Certificate

We would like to thank Hans Geissler, Erich Heckel Foundation, Hemmenhofen, for his kind information dated 24 March 2014.The work is registered with the archive of the Erich Heckel Estate.

Provenance

Galerie Thomas Levy, Hamburg; Private collection, Rhineland