Erich Heckel (1883 Döbeln - 1970 Radolfzell) Lot n° 43

Reading aloud Woodcut on laid paper. 1914. 30 x 20 cm (51,4 x 35,7 cm). Signed "Erich Heckel". Dube H 272, Ebner/Gabelmann 629 H/A. Expressive early hand print by the artist in rich black. Outside the edition. Radiantly wreathed above the round world: from the deep black explodes a firework of furiously carved light. Two people - Sidi, the artist's fiancée, and their mutual friend Walter Kaesbach - peel ghostly out of the darkness, their brightly lit faces thoughtfully folded in deep creases. The close relationship of the sitters is quickly revealed by the shoulder to shoulder placed physical unison to the right. The art historian with a doctorate recites from a booklet while the sitter listens raptly. The illuminating effect of what is read is reinforced by the candle chandeliers on the wall, whose splaying glow surrounds the heads of both with ominously twitching glorioles. Like an overly sunlit globe, the round table with its strongly distorted perspective arches over the foreground of the picture and creates an oppressive narrowness appropriate to the political situation of the year 1914.