Sale: 530 / Evening Sale / The Hermann Gerlinger Collection, June 10. 2022 in Munich Lot 4

 

4
Erich Heckel
Das Floß, 1905.
Woodcut
Estimate:
€ 3,000 / $ 3,240
Sold:
€ 8,750 / $ 9,450

(incl. surcharge)
Das Floß. 1905.
Woodcut.
Ebner/Gabelmann 81 H a (of b). Dube H 32. Signed, dated and titled. Monogrammed in printing block. From an edition of to date 8 known copies. On laid paper. 12.8 x 21.4 cm (5 x 8.4 in). Sheet: 23,5 x 27,7 cm (9,2 x 10,9 in).
Late print.

• Motif found on a study trip along the river Main between Aschaffenburg and Amorbach in 1905.
• The painting of the same name from 1905 was destroyed.
• Rhythmical ornamental arrangement with a strong depth effect.
• Not on the international auction market in the past 35 years
.

We are grateful to Mrs Renate Ebner and Mr Hans Geissler, Erich Heckel Estate, Hemmenhofen on Lake Constance, for their kind support in cataloging this lot.

PROVENANCE: Collection Hermann Gerlinger, Würzburg (with the collector stamp).

EXHIBITION: Schleswig-HolsteinischesLandesmuseum 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).
Buchheim Museum, Bernried (permanent loan from Collection Hermann Gerlinger, 2017-2022).

LITERATURE: Heinz Spielmann (editor), Die Maler der Brücke. Collection Hermann Gerlinger, Stuttgart 1995, p. 144 (with illu.), SHG no. 128.
Hermann Gerlinger, Franken und die Künstler der "Brücke", in: Frankenland: Zeitschrift für Fränkische Landeskunde, August 2001, issue 4, p. 267 (illu. 3).
Hermann Gerlinger, Katja Schneider (editor), Die Maler der Brücke. Inventory catalog Collection Hermann Gerlinger, Halle (Saale) 2005, p. 97, SHG no. 320 (with illu.).

From June to August 1905, the year "Der Brücke" was founded, Erich Heckel and Fritz Bleyl went on a study trip from Aschaffenburg to Amorbach. But it was not a private enterprise; the trip was organized as a semester-end trip by the Technical University of Dresden, where Fritz Bleyl and Ernst Ludwig Kirchner received their diplomas on July 1, 1905. Professor Fritz Schumacher, the lecturer for freehand and ornamental drawing, was popular with the students and had organized this tour. Schumacher was so popular because of his progressive teaching methods and maybe that's why Erich Heckel decided to come along as an external. Unfortunately, no more sketches that Erich Heckel made on this trip have survived, but the few woodcut motifs provide interesting insights. This also applies to our sheet "Das Floß“ (The Raft), which was probably created in a Main landscape.

The woodcut is characterized by a pronounced flowing, rhythmic structure, which becomes clear in the diagonal trunks of the raft and continues horizontally in the waves of the river, finally ending in the design of the clouds. The raft itself is also structured: the diagonal trunks are clearly divided into five sections. As always, Heckel stuck to reality here, because at that time a raft on the Main river consisted of five to eight sections called "Böden", which were firmly moored together. At that time, the Main river was the transport route for wood to distant Amsterdam. Even this early woodcut reveals the basic characteristics of Erich Heckel's working method, which he would retain. For example, his fine sense for the use of surface contrasts and the framing of the image section with a surrounding line.

Due to the nature of the paper, this print was demonstrably made much later than the wooden block itself: proof that Erich Heckel particularly valued this work, which is all the more significant given that he destroyed a number of his early works. [EH]



4
Erich Heckel
Das Floß, 1905.
Woodcut
Estimate:
€ 3,000 / $ 3,240
Sold:
€ 8,750 / $ 9,450

(incl. surcharge)