Sale: 533 / Modern Art Day Sale and Gerlinger Collection, Dec. 10. 2022 in Munich Lot 474

 

474
Erich Heckel
Badende am Stein, 1911.
Watercolor and pencil
Estimate:
€ 20,000 / $ 21,600
Sold:
€ 35,000 / $ 37,800

(incl. surcharge)
Badende am Stein. 1911.
Watercolor and pencil.
Lower right signed, dated and titled. On smooth wove paper. 32 x 30 cm (12.5 x 11.8 in), the full sheet.

• Bathing nudes are a key motif of "Brücke" art.
• They are an expression of their quest for the unity of man and nature.
• Made in Prerow on the Baltic Sea, where he Heckel and Siddi Riha spent the summer of 1911
.

The work is registered in the Erich Heckel Estate, Hemmenhofen on Lake Constance. We are grateful to Ms Renate Ebner and Mr Hans Geissler for the kind support in cataloging this lot.

PROVENANCE: From the artist's estate.
Roman Norbert Ketterer, Campione d'Italia (acquired from the above in 1973.
Collection Hermann Gerlinger, Würzburg (with the collector's stamp Lugt 6032).

EXHIBITION: Erich Heckel. Gemälde, Aquarelle, Zeichnungen, Galerie Wolfgang Ketterer, Munich February 26 - April 17, 1966, cat. no. 16 (with illu. on p. 34).
Roman Norbert Ketterer (ed.), Erich Heckel zum 90. Geburtstag. Gemälde, Aquarelle, Zeichnungen, Graphik, Campione d'Italia 1973, p. 42, cat. no. 20 (with color illu.).
Erich Heckel 1883-1979. Aquarelle. Zeichnungen. Ausstellung zum 100. Geburtstag des Malers, Städtische Galerie, Würzburg, 1983, cat. no. 19 (with color illu.).
Schleswig-Holsteinisches Landesmuseum, Schloss Gottorf, Schleswig (permanent loan from the Collection Hermann Gerlinger, 1995-2001).
Frauen in Kunst und Leben der "Brücke", Schleswig-Holsteinisches Landesmuseum, Schloss Gottorf, Schleswig, September 10 - November 5, 2000, cat. no. 92 (with color illu. on p. 164).
Kunstmuseum Moritzburg, Halle an der Saale (permanent loan from the Collection Gerlinger, 2001-2017).
Im Rhythmus der Natur: Landschaftsmalerei der "Brücke". Meisterwerke der Sammlung Hermann Gerlinger, Städtische Galerie, Ravensburg, October 28, 2006 - January 28, 2007 (with color illu. on p. 98).
Expressiv! Die Künstler der Brücke. Die Sammlung Hermann Gerlinger, Albertina Vienna, June 1 - August 26, 2007, cat. no. 97 (with color illu. on p. 165).
Erich Heckel, Einfühlung und Ausdruck, Buchheim Museum, Bernried, October 31, 2020 - March 7, 2021, extended until June 20, 2021 (with color illu. on p. 181).
Buchheim Museum, Bernried (permanent loan from the Collection Hermann Gerlinger, 2017-2022).

LITERATURE: Galleria Henze (ed.), Erich Heckel. Gemälde, Aquarelle, Zeichnungen, Druckgraphik, catalog 20, Campione d’Italia 1979, p. 16, cat. no. 16 (with color illu.).
Heinz Spielmann (ed.), Die Maler der Brücke. Sammlung Hermann Gerlinger, Stuttgart 1995, p. 199, SHG no. 247 (with color illu.).
Hermann Gerlinger, Katja Schneider (eds.), Die Maler der Brücke. Inventory catalog Collection Hermann Gerlinger, Halle (Saale) 2005, Sp. 193, SHG no. 433 (with color illu.).

Since the days of the "Brücke" artists' trips to the Moritzburg Ponds, nudes of bathers in untouched nature have been a key theme of the group. These works express the painters' quest for the unity of man and nature, as well as their rejection of conventional life and bourgeois morale. Erich Heckel, too, took up this theme in his watercolors over and over again up until the 1930s. After his stays at the Moritzburg Ponds, he also found motifs and models on the Baltic Sea. Trips to Prerow, Hiddensee, Fehmarn and Osterholz on the Flensburg Fjord inspired him to ever new depictions of bathers in front of a varety of coastal landscapes. In the summer of 1911, the year in which the present work was created, he and Siddi Riha stayed in Prerow on the Darss. The year before, he had met the dancer who went by the actual name Milda Frieda Georgi in Dresden. She became his lifelong partner and served him as model for many his works, including various bathing scenes. Unlike it is the case with portraits, the focus in this body of works is not on the person itself, but rather on the interplay of nature and man. Subject of these works is an unconstrained existence in untouched landscapes. Details or anatomically correct bodies are often dispensed with in favor of reproducing the overall sensual impression, as the watercolor from 1911 also vividly illustrates. With quick strokes, Erich Heckel captured the scenery at the Baltic Sea in uniform color tones, drawing its expressive power entirely from the moment and allowing nature and man to become one. [AR]



474
Erich Heckel
Badende am Stein, 1911.
Watercolor and pencil
Estimate:
€ 20,000 / $ 21,600
Sold:
€ 35,000 / $ 37,800

(incl. surcharge)