Lot 237 D

Heckel's 1919 woodcut entitled “Männerbildnis” is definitely one of the best-known works of German Expressionism. This marvelous hand-made print with its beautifully dense colours is a graphic masterpiece by the former member of the Brücke art group, a print of an almost velvet black drawing from the worked woodblock and in the present specimen then enriched by a dark luscious green, brown and grey-blue. It is a self-image of the artist after the defeat of World War I, and without doubt artistic testimony to a form of contemplative self-enquiry that befell him and the entire nation. This may explain the unmistakable nature and the importance of precisely this work by Erich Heckel, not to mention its historical reception. Annemarie Dube spoke of an intensification and perfection of intellectual and emotional powers that were demonstrated in the “moving coloured woodcut 'Männerbildnis': Line and surface in harmony with colour embrace the self-portrait with the natural touch and absolute surety of a great master of his craft.” (quoted from exhib. cat. Erich Heckel, Museum Folkwang Essen/ Haus der Kunst Munich, 1983/1984, p. 65). In the context of Erich Heckel's oeuvre, this coloured woodcut is simultaneously the climax and a looking back, as it marked the end not only of a phase in his work of great artistic importance, but also of an entire epoch.