Erich Heckel

Exhibited by Galerie Henze & Ketterer

Material Oil on canvas

Dimensions 64 × 70 cm

Place of Creation Dresden (D)

Price Available upon inquiry

Status Vetted

About the Work

The Übigau shipyard was a favorite subject for Erich Heckel and Ernst Ludwig Kirchner. They primarily depicted it from the Friedrichstadt bank of the Elbe. In 1908, Kirchner created a painting (Gordon 0036, now lost), an etching, and several drawings from this vantage point. Founded in 1873, the shipyard became Germany's leading inland shipyard, employing up to 1,500 people. It closed in 1958. Some of the factory buildings remain, as well as the characteristic "Übigau riverbank crane."

Behind three figures on the left bank, the Elbe stretches across the water to the horizontal line of the opposite bank, which forms the upper center of the image. The shipyard buildings behind them, with their chimneys, are reflected in the Elbe, along with a barge moored to the right.

Behind three figures on the left bank, the Elbe appears to extend horizontally to the line of the opposite bank, which forms a line above the center of the image. Stylistically, this painting belongs to the early Expressionist period, a generous, late-Impressionist divisionism applied with broad, short, vigorous brushstrokes, a style favored by the Brücke artists, as well as Emil Nolde and many of his contemporaries. The brushstrokes are not only vigorous, but also the abbreviation of form and color, placed side by side without mixing, only occasionally highlighted with white in the blue tones.

This is one of Erich Heckel's typical cityscapes, in which he did not seek the grand, traditional veduta, but rather depicted the spheres of everyday life and the working world in a striking manner.

The painting is monogrammed and dated lower right. Signed, titled, and dated on the reverse of the stretcher.

Show moreless

Provenance

Erich Heckel, Hemmenhofen; Roman Norbert Ketterer, Campione d'Italia/Lugano (May 2, 1964, B6035); Private collection (2002).

Literature

Vogt, Paul, Erich Heckel, Catalogue Raisonné of Paintings, Recklinghausen, 1965, Cat. No. 1907/3; Ketterer, Roman Norbert: Legends at the Auction House: The Rediscovery of German Expressionism, ed. by Prof. Dr. Dr. Gerd Presler, Munich, 1999, ill. p. 41, color plate; Hüneke, Andreas: Erich Heckel, Catalogue Raisonné of Paintings, Murals and Sculptures, Volume I (1904–1918), ed. by the Erich Heckel Foundation Hemmenhofen, Munich, 2017, cat. nos. 1907–15, ill. p. 29, color plate.