Sale: 530 / Evening Sale / The Hermann Gerlinger Collection, June 10. 2022 in Munich Lot 15

 

15
Erich Heckel
Fischer am Strand, 1909.
Watercolor and pencil
Estimate:
€ 30,000 / $ 32,400
Sold:
€ 68,750 / $ 74,250

(incl. surcharge)
Fischer am Strand. 1909.
Watercolor and pencil.
Lower right signed and lower left inscribed "Knaben". With an India ink drawing on the reverse, as well as once more signed on the reverse. On smooth wove paper. 33 x 49 cm (12.9 x 19.2 in), the full sheet.
[AR].

• Watercolor with rich contrasts and intensive colors from the significant "Brücke" days.
• Rare motif in Heckel's oeuvre.
• For the first time offered on the international auction market in 30 years.
• From the important collection of Ernest Rathenau
.

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

PROVENANCE: Collection Ernest Rathenau, Berlin / New York / Bad Nauheim (until 1986).
Collection Hermann Gerlinger, Würzburg (with the collector stamp, acquired from the estate of the above in 1987: Sotheby's Munich, October 28, 1987).).

EXHIBITION: Schleswig-HolsteinischesLandesmuseum Schloss Gottorf, Schleswig (permanent loan from the Collection Hermann Gerlinger, 1995-2001).
Kunstmuseum Moritzburg, Halle an der Saale (permanent loan from the Collection Hermann Gerlinger, 2001-2017).
Expressiv! Die Künstler der Brücke. Die Sammlung Hermann Gerlinger, Albertina Vienna, June 1 - August 26, 2007, cat. no. 70 (withh color illu. on p. 124)
Buchheim Museum, Bernried (permanent loan from the Collection Hermann Gerlinger, 2017-2022).

LITERATURE: Sotheby's, Munich, Deutsche Kunst des 20. Jahrhunderts. Aus der Sammlung von Dr. Ernest Rathenau und aus dem Besitz anderer Sammlungen, auction on October 28, 1987, lot 63, with color illu.
Heinz Spielmann (editor), Die Maler der Brücke. Sammlung Hermann Gerlinger, Stuttgart 1995, SHG no. 192, p. 172 (with color illu.).
Hermann Gerlinger, Katja Schneider (editor), Die Maler der Brücke. Inventory catalog Collection Hermann Gerlinger, Halle (Saale) 2005, SHG no. 365, p. 162 (with color illu.).
"Owing to the rhythmical organization and Heckel's free artistic performance, the sheet, which used to be part of the Collection Ernest Rathenau, hints at Heckel's growing sense for pictorial structure and clarity. As the lightly dressed fishermen suggest, the sheet was not made before late April of 1909.“ Heinz Spielmann, quoted from: Hermann Gerlinger, Katja Schneider (ed.), Die Maler der Brücke. Inventory catalog Collection Hermann Gerlinger, Halle (Saale) 2005, p. 162.

The watercolor is defined by the loosely and transparently applied triad of red, yellow and blue, with only a few black accents. On the left, we see a boat on the sand. The slightly curved horizon, typical of Heckel's sea paintings, can already be seen in this early watercolor. The fishermen, sketched with short lines, are lined up on the beach and work together on a net, which, however, cannot be seen, while their postures are so clearly characterized that there is no doubt about their activity. In April 1909, Heckel traveled to Italy. There is no evidence that he actually stayed there by the sea. But a watercolor "Badende am Tiber" in his estate is stylistically very close to the "Fischern am Strand", and fishermen in shorts, as depicted here, are hard to imagine in northern Germany, where Heckel then stayed in Dangast in August.

Dr. Andreas Hueneke, Author of the new catalogue raisonné of Erich Heckel's paintings



15
Erich Heckel
Fischer am Strand, 1909.
Watercolor and pencil
Estimate:
€ 30,000 / $ 32,400
Sold:
€ 68,750 / $ 74,250

(incl. surcharge)