Placing the amaryllis blossom so prominently in the format seems unusual at first, even for Erich Heckel. The flower stems are strong in stature,with up to four slightly hanging funnel-shaped flowers, the bulb flower, originally from South Africa, is a popular indoor plant, especially for its magnificent colors and the splendor it brings to living rooms during dull winter months.
Still life painting was one of the pictorial genres that not only Heckel, but also the other "Brücke" artists cultivated as a special exercise. It is not only the arrangement that determines the effect, but also the display of objects in the still life, which is reminiscent of Dutch still lifes painting. With this still life, Heckel pays homage to the amaryllis, places it in a special light and refrains from further decorations, apart from just a hint at the ambiance.

Back from the battlefield Flanders, Heckel acquired a cottage in Osterholz, where he sought reorientation in seclusion and to let the new social values take effect on him. At his new domicile, the artist set up a studio in the attic and painted it, reflecting on the tradition of the "Brücke" painters, who adorned their rooms with decorations they had created themselves.
Accordingly, Heckel also enriched the motifs of his (flower) still lifes with accessories, such as his own sculptures or other objects, just as he did during the "Brücke" period before the First World War. In this work from 1927, Heckel placed the vase with the flower in full bloom on a seemingly painted table in his studio. The space does not have much of a depth effect, the wall in the background painted with ornaments and a reclined man with a mustache is very close to the table. We already encounter this motif in the first self-portrait from 1919 (ill.), which shows the same background as the present still life.

The man with the mustache in right immediately catches the observer’s eye and begins to take on a life of its own. With subtle means, Heckel underscores an immanent dynamic with the figure, which has absolutely nothing to do with the opulent flower, but which emphasizes what is special about this still life through the figure's melancholic gaze into the room. Heckel knows how to capture the dynamics of the figure through the arrangement and movement of the flower heads. Heckel's directs the view into the left corner of the room, various red surfaces and levels are staggered into the depth of the room, the perspective suggests motion; the ornament painted on the wall with the bearded head supports the effect, so to speak: the blossoms of the amaryllis come to life in a mysterious way in an otherwise calm, unexcitedly decorated room.

The story of the still life with amaryllis is as impressive as it is moving. In the year of its creation, Galerie Ferdinand Möller showed the painting in the opening exhibition of the new premises on Schöneberger Ufer 38 in Berlin. In 1929, Carl Georg Heise, the progressive director at the Behnhaus Museum and friend of the artist, acquired the work for his museum in Lübeck. Less than ten years later, the still life was confiscated as part of the "Degenerate Art" campaign, expropriated without compensation in favor of the German Reich under the "Law on Confiscation of Products of Degenerate Art" of May 31, 1938, and offered for sale by the Reich Ministry for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda in Berlin . Theodor Fischer selected "Amaryllis" along with around 120 other works from the depot at Schönhausen Castle in order to auction them in the legendary auction "Gemälde und Plastiken moderner Meister aus deutschen Museen" (Paintings and Sculptures by Modern Masters from German Museums) in Lucerne on June 30, 1939. This enchanting still life did not find a buyer and was subsequently purchased by Ernst Barlach's private secretary, the art dealer Bernhard A. Böhmer in Güstrow. The "Amaryllis" can be traced back to the collection of Edgar Horstmann from Hamburg (1943). Böhmer met Horstmann when he and his family were evacuated and fled to Güstrow in 1943. The Bauhaus-trained architect got the inspiration to start his own collection form Böhmer. After the end of the dictatorship, he returned to Hamburg and, in addition to his work as an architect, began to trade art, including works from the estate of Böhmer, who committed suicide in May 1945. In 1978, Hermann Gerlinger succeeded in integrating this exceptionally beautiful still life into his collection. [MvL]