Asta: 533 / Modern Art Day Sale and Gerlinger Collection del 10 dicembre 2022 a Monaco di Baviera Lot 483

 

483
Erich Heckel
Damenringkampf, 1910.
Colored chalk drawing on a postcard to Emy Frisch
Stima:
€ 20,000 / $ 21,600
Risultato:
€ 30,000 / $ 32,400

( commissione inclusa)
Damenringkampf. 1910.
Colored chalk drawing on a postcard to Emy Frisch.
9 x 14 cm (3.5 x 5.5 in).
With a postage stamp "Dresden 17.2.10". Addressed to "Frl. Emy Frisch, Friedenau b. Berlin, Kaiserallee [..]" and with a barely legible text "Besten Dank für die Gastfreundschaft für meine Bilder. Ich habe nach Bremen [..] herzl. Gruss D. Erich".
• Erich Heckel turns a postcard into a miniature work of art.
• Addressed to Emy Frisch, who was part of the circle of friends around the "Brücke" artists.
• The artist group discovered postcards as the perfect means of communication from a very early point on.
• Many of these objects are museum-owned today, among them the Brücke Museum Berlin or the Altonaer Museum, Hamburg
.

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

PROVENANCE: Emy Frisch, Friedenau (Berlin).
Collection Hermann Gerlinger, Würzburg (with the collector's stamp Lugt 6032).

EXHIBITION: Schleswig-Holsteinisches Landesmuseum, 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).
Erich Heckel, Einfühlung und Ausdruck, Buchheim Museum, Bernried, Ocotber 31, 2020 - March 7, 2021, extended until June 20, 2021 (with color illu. on p. 124).
Buchheim Museum, Bernried (permanent loan from the Collection Hermann Gerlinger, 2017-2022).

LITERATURE: Heinz Spielmann (ed.), Die Maler der Brücke. Sammlung Hermann Gerlinger, Stuttgart 1995, p. 182, SHG no. 209 (with color illu.).
Hermann Gerlinger, Katja Schneider (eds.), Die Maler der Brücke. Inventory catalog Collection Hermann Gerlinger, Halle (Saale) 2005, p. 171, SHG- no. 386 (with color illu.).

"The Brücke artists' printed and drawn postcards, sometimes painted in watercolors are not only miniature artworks but also documents of their life and creation."
Magdalena M. Möller, Besten Gruß. Künstlerpostkaten der "Brücke", Munich/Berlin 2012, p. 8.

In 1910 Erich Heckel addressed a postcard with a color drawing of a ladies' wrestling match to Emy Frisch, who married Karl Schmidt-Rottluff in 1919. Together with her brother Hans Frisch, she was an early member of the wider circle of friends around the "Brücke" artists and had initially dated Ernst Ludwig Kirchner for some time. Hans Frisch is mentioned in the list of passive members of the "Brücke" as early as in 1908, and had plans to buy a house on Fehmarn together with Ernst Ludwig Kirchner and Erich Heckel. After Emy Frisch and Ernst Ludwig Kirchner had broken up he abandoned the plans. Bu the postcard shows that Erich Heckel remained in contact with Emy Frisch. He thanked her for the "hospitality for my paintings" and sent warm greetings from Dresden to Berlin. During this time, the "Brücke" artists used these small cards a lot to send messages from their journeys, to say thank you for a favor, or to make last-minute arrangements. They always filled the blank space on the front with their own drawings, watercolors or woodcuts, which to this day provide insight into the Brücke’s variety of motifs. The drawing of the ladies' wrestling match, for example, was created during a phase in which the artists were discovering the world of the circus, dance and theater. Capturing motion and the quickly fleeting moment was particularly challenging, and Erich Heckel demonstrated the greatest skill in it. He captured the scenes with quick, strong strokes and rendered the motions onto the paper. Despite the small format of only 9 x 14 centimeters, the postcard is full of clues on Erich Heckel's life and work in 1910. Like hardly any other medium, the self-designed greeting cards are an expression of the special spirit of the artist community "Brücke", their friendship, their common artistic path and ingenuity. [AR]



483
Erich Heckel
Damenringkampf, 1910.
Colored chalk drawing on a postcard to Emy Frisch
Stima:
€ 20,000 / $ 21,600
Risultato:
€ 30,000 / $ 32,400

( commissione inclusa)