Drei Figuren vorm Wasser. 1925.
Watercolor and color chalks.
Monogrammed and dated in lower right. Dated and titled by Hans Geissler (Erich Heckel Estate, Hemmenhofen) on the reverse. On wove paper. 58.2 x 48.3 cm (22.9 x 19 in), the full sheet. [CH].

•Watercolor in subtle tones and tender wash with a painting-like quality.
• The motifs of bathers and plein-air nudes count among the most important subjects in the artist's œuvre from the intense Dresden "Brücke" days on the Moritzburg Ponds in 1909/10 all the way to Heckel's later creative years.
• Siddi and Erich Heckel followed a strict schedule according to which they spent the winters working in the Berlin studio, while spring was reserved for journeys to the south, mainly to the Bavarian and Swiss Alps, and summer and fall were spent in their small farmhouse on the Baltic Sea.
• Every year one or two children of Heckel's sister or of friends would spent their holidays with the Heckels, occasionally they were also depicted, as is the case in this atmospheric beach scene.
• The watercolor with the scorched corner was among the works Heckel was able to save after his studio got hit by a bomb on January 30, 1944.

The work is registered in the archive of the Erich Heckel Estate, Hemmenhofen on Lake Constance. We are grateful to Ms. Renate Ebner for the kind support in cataloging this lot.

PROVENANCE: Erich Heckel Estate, Hemmenhofen.
Hermann Gerlinger Collection, Würzburg (with the collector's stamp, Lugt 6032, acquired from the above in 1985).

EXHIBITION: Schleswig-Holsteinisches Landesmuseum, Schloss Gottorf, Schleswig (permanent loan from the Hermann Gerlinger Collection, 1995-2001).
Kunstmuseum Moritzburg, Halle an der Saale (permanent loan from the Hermann Gerlinger Collection, 2001-2017).
Buchheim Museum, Bernried (permanent loan from the Hermann Gerlinger Collection, 2017-2022).

LITERATURE: Heinz Spielmann (ed.), Die Maler der Brücke. Sammlung Hermann Gerlinger, Stuttgart 1995, p. 319, SHG no. 495 (with illu.).
Hermann Gerlinger, Katja Schneider (eds.), Die Maler der Brücke. Inventory catalog Hermann Gerlinger Collection, Halle (Saale) 2005, p. 228, SHG no. 517 (with illu.).