Frauen. 1923.
Black Chalk drawing.
Lower right signed, dated and titled. On JW Zanders laid paper (with watermark). 63.5 x 51 cm (25 x 20 in), size of sheet. [CH].

• The female outdoor nude plays a key role not only in Heckel's oeuvre, but also in the artistic work of former "Brücke" members E. L. Kirchner and Karl Schmdit-Rottluff.
• The depictions are an expression of a longing for the unity of man and nature.
• In 1919, the artist and his wife bought a farmhouse in Osterholz on the Flensburg Fjord, where they would often spent the summer months in the following years.
• In the year the drawing was created, Otto Mueller (probably with his then wife Elsbeth Lübke) visited for a few weeks and created several nudes and bathing scenes on the Baltic Sea beach.

The work is registered in the Hermann Gerlinger Collection as SHG 321a.

PROVENANCE: Erich Heckel Estate, Hemmenhofen.
Hermann Gerlinger Collection, Würzburg (acquired from the above in 2012, with the collector's stamp Lugt 6032).

EXHIBITION: Kunstmuseum Moritzburg, Halle an der Saale (permanent loan from the Hermann Gerlinger Collection, 2001-2017).
Buchheim Museum, Bernried (permanent loan from the Hermann Gerlinger Collection, 2017-2022).
Erich Heckel, Einfühlung und Ausdruck, Buchheim Museum, Bernried, October 31, 2020 - March 7, 2021, extended until June 20, 2021 (color illu. on p. 298).

In good condition. Minimally creased. Small tear in the upper edge of the sheet, backed with mounting tape. The lower left corner somewhat stained.