Live Auction 13878Prints & Multiples
ERICH HECKEL (1883-1970)
Lot 100

ERICH HECKEL (1883-1970)

Mann in der Ebene

Closed29 March 2017

Price Realised

GBP 6,875

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ERICH HECKEL (1883-1970)
Mann in der Ebene
woodcut, 1917, on wove paper, signed and dated in pencil, a good impression from the edition of forty, printed by Fritz Voigt, Berlin, with his signature in pencil, published in the portfolio Elf Holzschnitte, 1912-1919 by J. B. Neumann, Berlin, 1921, the full sheet, a deckle edge above, with pale time staining, a few unobtrusive pinpoint foxmarks in the margins, otherwise in good condition, framed
Block 375 x 270 mm., Sheet 619 x 500 mm.

Acquired by the present owner in 1985.

Specialist note

Erich Heckel created this woodcut in 1917 while serving in Flanders as a medical orderly. The lonely figure, clearly a self-portrait, standing in a barren landscape under a sky torn by mortar fire is an emblematic image for the despair and existential angst felt by those who experienced the slaughter and destruction of World War I. This woodcut is also a precursor to one of the most iconic images of German Expressionism, Heckel's colour woodcut Männerbildnis (D. 318) of 1919.