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Lot Essay
The present picture remained in the artist's collection until shortly before he died. It was then discreetly sold by Galerie Grosshennig and, as we understand it, has only been seen once since it left Heckel's collection. As a result, the importance of this painting remained unknown for generations of Expressionist collectors. Until its recent rediscovery, this painting, as well as a sister picture by Kirchner Sitzender Mädchen (G.107), were considered lost.
Kirchner wrote to Heckel from his Dresden butcher's shop studio in an undated letter of 1909. In the letter he describes several paintings he is working on, as well as confirming to Heckel that he has rediscovered a wonderful young model whom the two artists had worked with the previous year. He writes, "Did you not get our card? The package you sent arrived safe and sound. The young girl and I were delighted and being extremely hungry have just finished gorging ourselves. We have sent you a postcard. Thank you so much it was very thoughtful of you... She [the young girl] is very excited about your pending return, with her flowing hair she looks like an Egyptian beauty and has attractive 'W' shaped breasts which are childlike despite their voluptuousness. She only lacks a little bit of sophistication" (translated from Ernst Ludwig Kirchner: Postkarten und Briefe am Erich Heckel, A.Dub-Heynig (ed.), Cologne, p. 229.
Kirchner then executed a series of fine drawings and lithographs of the young girl culminating in his superb nude portrait in oil. We recently discovered a Kirchner charcoal of the young girl, naked, sitting with Heckel. We presumed that these were the only works executed of this nubile 'Egyptian' beauty until the discovery of this magnificent oil.
Bearing in mind the striking resemblance in the two poses of the young girl, we can only assume that Kirchner and Heckel worked side by side on their two paintings (as Renoir and Monet had in Argenteuil in the 1860s). Proving beyond a doubt that in the early years of the Brücke this was a binding artistic and spiritual brotherhood. Everything is daring and shared: they specifically use only blue, red, light green, yellow and black paints, supplied by Könk, according to their correspondence, they paint quickly on a very basic white ground, they choose a model who is so young that they face prosecution (it seems certain that the relationships were more than artistic) and they intentionally paint her sexuality rather than her femininity. These are brave young men painting women in a manner never seen before.
Both artists then went on to paint a series of significant portraits of nudes in their Dresden studio which have become icons of the Expressionist movement. Perhaps the most celebrated are Fränzi and Marzella, but this 'Egyptian' beauty predates them and the overtly sexual nature of this portrait gives it enormous significance as a precursor to the great Brücke nudes which follow.
Sadly, to date, we have been unable to discover the identity of this young girl who helped to emancipate the talents of Kirchner and Heckel. Dr Pressler has recently identified a Heckel watercolour of her which is simply inscribed "Vierzehnjähringe". Furthermore, Dr Pressler points out that the current Kirchner exhibition at the National Gallery of Art Washington includes a previously unknown oil of the 'Egyptian' girl seated, nude outdoors (Gordon 197v: dated 1909/10).
The following year in the summer of 1910, Heckel returned to the lakes of Moritzburg with Kirchner and Pechstein where the Brücke artists took a group of young female models as their companions. Amongst them were Marzella and Fränzi (although there seems to be no sign of our 'Egyptian'). It appears that Heckel must have taken the present oil with him. The reasoning for this is that the painting thus far known as "Haus" (as cited by Vogt) is unquestionably the same haus as Kirchner depicted in his oil entitled Moritzburger Haus: Das weisse Haus in 1910 (G.133). Clearly both Heckel and Kirchner sat together on a sun-blessed day in the summer of 1910 and challenged each other to paint this Moritzburg view in the most expressive way possible.
At this stage in their career, Heckel is unquestionably the master of fluency. His picture flows with extraordinary energy and has a bravura which one only sees in Schmidt-Rottluff oils of the same date. Heckel's brilliance owes a great deal to a new technique which he devised in Italy the previous summer. Here he learnt that thinning his oils with petrol and painting on to a very solid gesso preparation allowed his brush to travel quickly and to leave very even pigments on his canvas. From this summer on, his technique would be adopted by all the Brücke artists as a means of painting freely with raw colour.
Kirchner clearly thought highly of his version of the Moritzburger Haus. From a diary note we know that Heckel and Kirchner visited Gustav Schiefler, the celebrated art historian, in Mellingstadt near Hamburg in October 1910. Kirchner gifted his oil to Schiefler and one can only presume he did so after this autumn visit.
Doctor Pressler points out that the Moritzburger Haus stands on Borngartenweg and is very precise in dating the works to August 1910. On this painting trip they were also accompanied by Max Pechstein who took the opportunity to paint a view slightly further down the Borngartenweg which is titled Wiesenrand bei Moritzburg. Pressler adds that the three Brücke artists were never closer in artistic Geist than in the summer of 1910, a Geist that blossomed and died relatively quickly but which was at its very height during the twelve month period which covers both the nude and the landscape that make up this extraordinary double-sided painting.
Perhaps it was the fact that Heckel himself identified that he had painted two very significant Brücke oils on one canvas that led him to keep the picture until shortly before his death. Even Paul Vogt who compiled the catalogue of Heckel's works as late as 1965 never knew that this picture was double-sided, nor its significance. Only recently, when the picture was shown at the 'Gli Espressionisti 1905-1920' show in Rome did German Expressionist scholars begin to discuss its importance. Its significance is amplified by the fact that Heckel's great soul-mate, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, chose to paint the same subjects beside him on both occasions that he worked on this canvas. From this perspective, this painting is truly unique.
Researching the present oil has been a great pleasure and we would like to thank Professor Gerd Pressler for his kind contribution to this catalogue entry.
Kirchner wrote to Heckel from his Dresden butcher's shop studio in an undated letter of 1909. In the letter he describes several paintings he is working on, as well as confirming to Heckel that he has rediscovered a wonderful young model whom the two artists had worked with the previous year. He writes, "Did you not get our card? The package you sent arrived safe and sound. The young girl and I were delighted and being extremely hungry have just finished gorging ourselves. We have sent you a postcard. Thank you so much it was very thoughtful of you... She [the young girl] is very excited about your pending return, with her flowing hair she looks like an Egyptian beauty and has attractive 'W' shaped breasts which are childlike despite their voluptuousness. She only lacks a little bit of sophistication" (translated from Ernst Ludwig Kirchner: Postkarten und Briefe am Erich Heckel, A.Dub-Heynig (ed.), Cologne, p. 229.
Kirchner then executed a series of fine drawings and lithographs of the young girl culminating in his superb nude portrait in oil. We recently discovered a Kirchner charcoal of the young girl, naked, sitting with Heckel. We presumed that these were the only works executed of this nubile 'Egyptian' beauty until the discovery of this magnificent oil.
Bearing in mind the striking resemblance in the two poses of the young girl, we can only assume that Kirchner and Heckel worked side by side on their two paintings (as Renoir and Monet had in Argenteuil in the 1860s). Proving beyond a doubt that in the early years of the Brücke this was a binding artistic and spiritual brotherhood. Everything is daring and shared: they specifically use only blue, red, light green, yellow and black paints, supplied by Könk, according to their correspondence, they paint quickly on a very basic white ground, they choose a model who is so young that they face prosecution (it seems certain that the relationships were more than artistic) and they intentionally paint her sexuality rather than her femininity. These are brave young men painting women in a manner never seen before.
Both artists then went on to paint a series of significant portraits of nudes in their Dresden studio which have become icons of the Expressionist movement. Perhaps the most celebrated are Fränzi and Marzella, but this 'Egyptian' beauty predates them and the overtly sexual nature of this portrait gives it enormous significance as a precursor to the great Brücke nudes which follow.
Sadly, to date, we have been unable to discover the identity of this young girl who helped to emancipate the talents of Kirchner and Heckel. Dr Pressler has recently identified a Heckel watercolour of her which is simply inscribed "Vierzehnjähringe". Furthermore, Dr Pressler points out that the current Kirchner exhibition at the National Gallery of Art Washington includes a previously unknown oil of the 'Egyptian' girl seated, nude outdoors (Gordon 197v: dated 1909/10).
The following year in the summer of 1910, Heckel returned to the lakes of Moritzburg with Kirchner and Pechstein where the Brücke artists took a group of young female models as their companions. Amongst them were Marzella and Fränzi (although there seems to be no sign of our 'Egyptian'). It appears that Heckel must have taken the present oil with him. The reasoning for this is that the painting thus far known as "Haus" (as cited by Vogt) is unquestionably the same haus as Kirchner depicted in his oil entitled Moritzburger Haus: Das weisse Haus in 1910 (G.133). Clearly both Heckel and Kirchner sat together on a sun-blessed day in the summer of 1910 and challenged each other to paint this Moritzburg view in the most expressive way possible.
At this stage in their career, Heckel is unquestionably the master of fluency. His picture flows with extraordinary energy and has a bravura which one only sees in Schmidt-Rottluff oils of the same date. Heckel's brilliance owes a great deal to a new technique which he devised in Italy the previous summer. Here he learnt that thinning his oils with petrol and painting on to a very solid gesso preparation allowed his brush to travel quickly and to leave very even pigments on his canvas. From this summer on, his technique would be adopted by all the Brücke artists as a means of painting freely with raw colour.
Kirchner clearly thought highly of his version of the Moritzburger Haus. From a diary note we know that Heckel and Kirchner visited Gustav Schiefler, the celebrated art historian, in Mellingstadt near Hamburg in October 1910. Kirchner gifted his oil to Schiefler and one can only presume he did so after this autumn visit.
Doctor Pressler points out that the Moritzburger Haus stands on Borngartenweg and is very precise in dating the works to August 1910. On this painting trip they were also accompanied by Max Pechstein who took the opportunity to paint a view slightly further down the Borngartenweg which is titled Wiesenrand bei Moritzburg. Pressler adds that the three Brücke artists were never closer in artistic Geist than in the summer of 1910, a Geist that blossomed and died relatively quickly but which was at its very height during the twelve month period which covers both the nude and the landscape that make up this extraordinary double-sided painting.
Perhaps it was the fact that Heckel himself identified that he had painted two very significant Brücke oils on one canvas that led him to keep the picture until shortly before his death. Even Paul Vogt who compiled the catalogue of Heckel's works as late as 1965 never knew that this picture was double-sided, nor its significance. Only recently, when the picture was shown at the 'Gli Espressionisti 1905-1920' show in Rome did German Expressionist scholars begin to discuss its importance. Its significance is amplified by the fact that Heckel's great soul-mate, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, chose to paint the same subjects beside him on both occasions that he worked on this canvas. From this perspective, this painting is truly unique.
Researching the present oil has been a great pleasure and we would like to thank Professor Gerd Pressler for his kind contribution to this catalogue entry.