Gustav Schiefler in Mellingstedt
In 1912 the "Brücke" patron and art lover Gustav Schiefler, director of the Hamburg District Court, acquired a country house in Mellingstedt near Hamburg. At first the family used it as a summer home, later the Schieflers lived there all year-round. The place is located on the river Alster in a local recreation area popular to this day. But even back then it attracted so many water sports enthusiasts that a special ramp to pull rowing and paddling boats over the Alster lock was built in 1910. (https://hamburger-sammelsurium.de/alsterbruecke-h027.html)
In the following year Gustav Schiefler invited Erich Heckel and his wife Siddi to visit them in their new summer home. In his book "Meine Grafiksammlung" he provides detailled account of Heckel's stay in Mellingstedt: Heckel had his meals together with the Schieflers at their place while he stayedd at a small nearby inn. During the day he was engaged in drawing and painting the surrounding landscape "with great diligence", as Schiefler reports. The Mellingburger lock wasn’t far from the house. Gustav Schiefler reports: "But it was the landscape at the Mellingburger lock that he was mainly occupied with, whether in quiet solitude in the early morning or with the hustle and bustle of boats and bathers."
The important year 1913
The artist group "Brücke" broke up in In May 1913 because of a series of quarrels and general discrepancy. After this extremely eventful time, Erich Heckel found a little s peace in Schiefler's summer retreat. The artistic situation was new, and it wasn’t clear at that point how which direction things would take for Erich Heckel in the future. The transition from a member of a group to finding a new position as an individual artist was ultimately just as significant as the founding of the "Brücke", which provided fertile ground for the artistic development of its members for several years. Just like his fellow artists, Erich Heckel was in an entirely new situation. There was no profound dispute between the artists, but they had simply noticed that they all wanted to pursue different paths.

This situation perhaps explains why Heckel was so captivated by the image of the lock he happened to find near his host's house that he painted it several times. It offered him an opportunit to repeatedly apply - certainly unconsciously - working methods established over the previous years. A total of four paintings with this motif are known: "Mellingburger Alsterschleuse" (oil/canvas, Hüneke 1913-31), which today is at the Brücke Museum in Berlin, shows a downstream view. Gustav Schiefler acquired this work and gave it on loan to the Kunsthalle Hamburg from 1918-1927. Another painting of the lock is the today lost painting "Badende an der Alster" (Hüneke 1912-32). Siddi Heckel mentions in a letter that it was sent to the collector Carl Hageman in Leverkusen for viewing in 1915. He had ordered, among others, mentioned painting and "Schleuse" (Hüneke 1913-33, whereabouts unknown). These two works, like our painting from the Hermann Gerlinger Collection, show the lock with an upstream view. On the right we see the pier built in 1910. In abovementioned paintings, Erich Heckel chose different perspectives, making it seem as if he was searching for the right angle.
One can also interpret the motifs with regards to the group’s common artistic accomplishments. Especially the view through the trees is strongly reminiscent of the compositional patterns of the "Brücke", as we know them from works made at the Moritzburg Ponds. However, with the expansive view of the lock in the present painting Heckel attained a liberated, open solution. The calm water, the moving trees and the cloudy sky add a certain vastness to the situation. It seems like the result of a gradual liberation from habitual creative patterns. Heckel characterized the various areas with great lightness. The thin application of paint in the foreground of the picture allows the water to play with light and reflections, while the accentuated brushstrokes in the area of the trees add great dynamic and the sky bears the typical crystalline structures of this creative period.

The painting also has a particular significance through its first owner, Ottilie Schiefler (1899-1992), the youngest daughter of Gustav Schiefler. Two of the lock paintings remained in the possession of the Schiefler family. In his views of the lock not far from the family home, Erich Heckel must have succeeded in capturing the spirit of the place. [EH]