Lot 24
Frame image
Raumbeispiel
24
Erich Heckel
Weiße Pferde, 1912.
Woodcut in colors
Estimate:
€ 15,000 / $ 16,500 Sold:
€ 67,500 / $ 74,250 (incl. surcharge)
Weiße Pferde. 1912.
Woodcut in colors.
Ebner/Gabelmann 531 H b2 (of b2). Dube H 242. Signed and dated. On Zanders laid paper (with watermark). 30.8 x 32.5 cm (12.1 x 12.7 in). Size of sheet: 47,2 x 60 cm (18,5 x 23,7 in).
Dube mentions an unnumbered edition of ca. 80 copies by Verlag I. B. Neumann, Berlin, as well as additional prints aside from the edition. The catalog raisonné by Renate Ebner and Andreas Gabelmann states that all prints known to date are hand-made prints with distinct features regarding print image, coloring or paper.
• Owing to the monotype-like dye, each woodcut is of unique character.
• This is one of Erich Heckel's most famous color woodcuts.
• Other copies are in the Sprengel Museum, Hanover, the Kupferstichkabinett Berlin, Museum Folkwang, Essen and the St. Louis Art Museum, USA.
We are grateful to Mrs Renate Ebner and Mr Hans Geissler, Estate Erich Heckel, Hemmenhofen on Lake Constance, for their kind expert advice.
PROVENANCE: Private collection Great Britain (until 1979: Wolfgang Ketterer, November 26 - 28, 1979).
Collection Hermann Gerlinger, Würzburg (with collector stamp).
EXHIBITION: Schleswig-Holsteinisches Landesmuseum Schloss Gottorf, Schleswig (permanent loan from Collection Hermann Gerlinger, 1995-2001).
Kunstmuseum Moritzburg, Halle an der Saale (permanent loan from Collection Hermann Gerlinger, 2001-2017).
Im Rhythmus der Natur: Landschaftsmalerei der "Brücke". Meisterwerke der Sammlung Hermann Gerlinger, Städtische Galerie, Ravensburg, October 10, 2006 - January 28, 2007, p. 100 (with color illu.).
Expressiv! Die Künstler der Brücke. Die Sammlung Hermann Gerlinger, Albertina Vienna, June 1 - August 26, 2007, cat. no. 96 (with color illu.)
Buchheim Museum, Bernried (permanent loan from Collection Hermann Gerlinger, 2017-2022).
LITERATURE: Galerie Wolfgang Ketterer, Munich, auction 36, November 26 - 28, 1979, lot 720.
Heinz Spielmann (editor), Die Maler der Brücke. Collection Hermann Gerlinger, Stuttgart 1995, p. 198, SHG no. 245 (with illu.)
Hermann Gerlinger, Katja Schneider (editor), Die Maler der Brücke. Inventory catalog Collection Hermann Gerlinger, Halle (Saale) 2005, p. 192, SHG no. 431 (with illu.)
Tier und Natur als Stimmungsträger.
Katja Schneider (editor), Moderne und Gegenwart. Das Kunstmuseum in Halle, Munich 2008, p. 123 (with color illu.).
Indina Woesthoff, "..die Schwere unseres Weges kann wohl Freunde gebrauchen" - Erich Heckel und Gustav Schiefler, in: Hermann Gerlinger, Katja Schneider (editor), Gemeinsames Ziel und eigene Wege. Die "Brücke" und ihr Nachwirken, Munich 2009, p. 64 (illu. 7).
"[..] shaping the object, fragmenting space with its uneven margins and the bright colors make it both one of the most charming and most monumental sheets of modern art; it breathes an air of new classicism."
Gustav Schiefler, Erich Heckels graphisches Werk, in: Das Kunstblatt, 2nd year, Berlin 1918, p. 286.
Woodcut in colors.
Ebner/Gabelmann 531 H b2 (of b2). Dube H 242. Signed and dated. On Zanders laid paper (with watermark). 30.8 x 32.5 cm (12.1 x 12.7 in). Size of sheet: 47,2 x 60 cm (18,5 x 23,7 in).
Dube mentions an unnumbered edition of ca. 80 copies by Verlag I. B. Neumann, Berlin, as well as additional prints aside from the edition. The catalog raisonné by Renate Ebner and Andreas Gabelmann states that all prints known to date are hand-made prints with distinct features regarding print image, coloring or paper.
• Owing to the monotype-like dye, each woodcut is of unique character.
• This is one of Erich Heckel's most famous color woodcuts.
• Other copies are in the Sprengel Museum, Hanover, the Kupferstichkabinett Berlin, Museum Folkwang, Essen and the St. Louis Art Museum, USA.
We are grateful to Mrs Renate Ebner and Mr Hans Geissler, Estate Erich Heckel, Hemmenhofen on Lake Constance, for their kind expert advice.
PROVENANCE: Private collection Great Britain (until 1979: Wolfgang Ketterer, November 26 - 28, 1979).
Collection Hermann Gerlinger, Würzburg (with collector stamp).
EXHIBITION: Schleswig-Holsteinisches Landesmuseum Schloss Gottorf, Schleswig (permanent loan from Collection Hermann Gerlinger, 1995-2001).
Kunstmuseum Moritzburg, Halle an der Saale (permanent loan from Collection Hermann Gerlinger, 2001-2017).
Im Rhythmus der Natur: Landschaftsmalerei der "Brücke". Meisterwerke der Sammlung Hermann Gerlinger, Städtische Galerie, Ravensburg, October 10, 2006 - January 28, 2007, p. 100 (with color illu.).
Expressiv! Die Künstler der Brücke. Die Sammlung Hermann Gerlinger, Albertina Vienna, June 1 - August 26, 2007, cat. no. 96 (with color illu.)
Buchheim Museum, Bernried (permanent loan from Collection Hermann Gerlinger, 2017-2022).
LITERATURE: Galerie Wolfgang Ketterer, Munich, auction 36, November 26 - 28, 1979, lot 720.
Heinz Spielmann (editor), Die Maler der Brücke. Collection Hermann Gerlinger, Stuttgart 1995, p. 198, SHG no. 245 (with illu.)
Hermann Gerlinger, Katja Schneider (editor), Die Maler der Brücke. Inventory catalog Collection Hermann Gerlinger, Halle (Saale) 2005, p. 192, SHG no. 431 (with illu.)
Tier und Natur als Stimmungsträger.
Katja Schneider (editor), Moderne und Gegenwart. Das Kunstmuseum in Halle, Munich 2008, p. 123 (with color illu.).
Indina Woesthoff, "..die Schwere unseres Weges kann wohl Freunde gebrauchen" - Erich Heckel und Gustav Schiefler, in: Hermann Gerlinger, Katja Schneider (editor), Gemeinsames Ziel und eigene Wege. Die "Brücke" und ihr Nachwirken, Munich 2009, p. 64 (illu. 7).
"[..] shaping the object, fragmenting space with its uneven margins and the bright colors make it both one of the most charming and most monumental sheets of modern art; it breathes an air of new classicism."
Gustav Schiefler, Erich Heckels graphisches Werk, in: Das Kunstblatt, 2nd year, Berlin 1918, p. 286.
The color woodcut "Weiße Pferde“ (White Horses) is one of the outstanding main works in Erich Heckel's oeuvre of prints and one of the highlights of German Expressionism. The attractive motif of the men leading horses in a stormy landscape was created in connection with the summer stay on the islands of Hiddensee and Fehmarn in 1912.
Heckel's expressive pictorial language emphasizes the elementary forces of nature in an exciting interplay with the harmony between humans and animals. He traces the harsh character of the island‘s landscape, which is shaped by wind and weather, using angularly reduced and flat, simplified forms. The color contrast of green and blue in combination with the bright white of the horses and the dark silhouettes of the trees and figures increases the vital expression of the pictorial creation.
In Heckel's prints of the "Brücke" years, of which woodcuts have the lion's share, this sheet occupies a certain special position, as it shows less of a scene quickly grasped from direct observation and more of a strongly composed image structure in which the subject is a timeless depiction of the primal unity of man and nature. In this print, made from two blocks, all copies differ from one another due to the monotype-like coloring of the color block and thus have a unique character. The irregular outlines of the printing blocks are typical of Heckel's woodcuts from 1912/13. With a keen sense of effectiveness, he inserts the subject into the special outline form and thus achieves additional dynamics and rhythm in the image.
Heckel's graphics collector Gustav Schiefler praised the "power of his sense of space" and "his mastery over the surface" of this work, which belonged to his collection, and summed it up: "[.] the shape of the objects, the division of space with its uneven edges and the light colors make it one of the most lovable and monumental sheets of modern art; at the same time it breathes an air of new classicism" (quoted from: Gustav Schiefler, Erich Heckel's graphisches Werk, in: Das Kunstblatt, 2nd year Berlin 1918, p. 286).
Andreas Gabelman
Heckel's expressive pictorial language emphasizes the elementary forces of nature in an exciting interplay with the harmony between humans and animals. He traces the harsh character of the island‘s landscape, which is shaped by wind and weather, using angularly reduced and flat, simplified forms. The color contrast of green and blue in combination with the bright white of the horses and the dark silhouettes of the trees and figures increases the vital expression of the pictorial creation.
In Heckel's prints of the "Brücke" years, of which woodcuts have the lion's share, this sheet occupies a certain special position, as it shows less of a scene quickly grasped from direct observation and more of a strongly composed image structure in which the subject is a timeless depiction of the primal unity of man and nature. In this print, made from two blocks, all copies differ from one another due to the monotype-like coloring of the color block and thus have a unique character. The irregular outlines of the printing blocks are typical of Heckel's woodcuts from 1912/13. With a keen sense of effectiveness, he inserts the subject into the special outline form and thus achieves additional dynamics and rhythm in the image.
Heckel's graphics collector Gustav Schiefler praised the "power of his sense of space" and "his mastery over the surface" of this work, which belonged to his collection, and summed it up: "[.] the shape of the objects, the division of space with its uneven edges and the light colors make it one of the most lovable and monumental sheets of modern art; at the same time it breathes an air of new classicism" (quoted from: Gustav Schiefler, Erich Heckel's graphisches Werk, in: Das Kunstblatt, 2nd year Berlin 1918, p. 286).
Andreas Gabelman
24
Erich Heckel
Weiße Pferde, 1912.
Woodcut in colors
Estimate:
€ 15,000 / $ 16,500 Sold:
€ 67,500 / $ 74,250 (incl. surcharge)