Fichten im Schnee. 1941.
Watercolor over pencil.
Signed, dated and titled in lower right. On grayish Ingres machine-made laid paper (with watermark). 48 x 62.7 cm (18.8 x 24.6 in), the full sheet. [JS].

• In winter 1940/41 Heckel visited the Ore Mountains, the following summer he went to Carinthia.
• During the war the artist found hope and solace in contemplating nature, which answered to the romatic pursuit of transgressing boundaries.
• In a letter to Lyonel Feininger in 1941, Heckel expressed his despair about the war: "It is hard not to be paralyzed and drown in senselessness".
• The artist masterly integrated the blank parts of the paper as snow-covered surfaces in this atmospheric winter landscape.

PROVENANCE: Hermann Gerlinger Collection, Würzburg (with the collector's stamp, Lugt 6032).

EXHIBITION: Schleswig-Holsteinisches Landesmuseum, Schloss Gottorf, Schleswig (permanent loan from the Hermann Gerlinger Collection, 1995-2001).
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, p. 348 (with illu).

LITERATURE: Heinz Spielmann (ed.), Die Maler der Brücke. Sammlung Hermann Gerlinger, Stuttgart 1995, pp. 334-335, SHG no. 529 (with illu.).
Hermann Gerlinger, Katja Schneider (eds.), Die Maler der Brücke. Inventory catalog Hermann Gerlinger Collection, Halle (Saale) 2005, p. 247, SHG no. 553 (with illu.).

In good condition.