Weibliches Gesicht. 1907.
Woodcut.
Ebner/Gabelmann 123 H. Dube 100. Signed, dated and titled "Das weibliche Gesicht". Monogrammed "H" in the printing block in upper left. One of to date 10 known early prints. On firm copper plate printing paper. 20.2 x 14.9 cm (7.9 x 5.8 in). Sheet: 36,5 x 21,5 cm (14,3 x 8,5 in).
[JS].
• Rich black hand-made print with broad margins of the facial features that Heckel cut in wood with great mastery.
• Very rare. To date only one copy was offered on the international auction market (source: artprice.com)
• In context of the famous "Brücke" model sessions in Dresden in 1905, Heckel also created the drawing "Modell" (also part of the Gerlinger Collection) showing a similar motif.
• One of the rare "Brücke" prints made after a ghraphic model, which was presumably traced and transferred onto the wooden block.
• Presumably intended for the woodcut series "Bildnisse" that Heckel had planned.
• Other proofs from this state are at, among others, the Brücke Museum, Berlin, the Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe and the Museum Folkwang, Essen.

PROVENANCE: Artist's estate.
Sammlung Hermann Gerlinger, Würzburg (Hermann Gerlinger Collection, Würzburg (with the collector's stamp on the reverse, Lugt 6032, acquired from the above in 2000).

EXHIBITION: 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)
Erich Heckel. Einfühlung und Ausdruck, Buchheim Museum, Bernried, October 31, 2020 – March 7, 2021, p. 79 (with illu).

LITERATURE: Hermann Gerlinger, Katja Schneider (eds.), Die Maler der Brücke. Inventory catalog Hermann Gerlinger Collection, Halle (Saale) 2005, p. 149, SHG no. 330 (with illu.).

"We [the "Brücke" artists] did not aspire making the woodcut look like a drawing, it was only about the sheet in front of us and the black dye, that was, so to speak, our ultimate goal."
Erich Heckel, quoted from: H. Gerlinger, K. Schneider (eds.), Die Maler der Brücke. Inventory catalog Hermann Gerlinger Collection, Halle (Saale) 2005, p. 248, SHG no. 555 (with illu.).(eds.), Die Maler der Brücke. Inventory catalog Hermann Gerlinger Collection, Halle (Saale) 2005, p. 149.