Halbakt (Junges Mädchen). 1907.
Lithograph.
Signed, dated and titled, also monogrammed and dated on the print substrate. From an edition of 7 known copies. On wove paper. 32 x 26.6 cm (12.5 x 10.4 in). Sheet: 47,3 x 37 cm (18,5 x 14,56 in).
[MH]

The "Brücke": Expressionism on Paper – The Passion of a German Collector
Further works from the collection will be offered in our Evening Sale on Friday, December 6, 2024, and in our Modern Art Day Sale, December 7, 2024.

• Important early print: Heckel's lithographs date from 1907 onwards.
• Part of the same private collection for over 40 years.
• One of only seven known copies.
• Other copies are in museum collections (Museum Folkwang, Essen, Brücke-Museum, Berlin, Staatliche Kunstsammlung Karlsruhe).

PROVENANCE: Stadtmuseum Dresden (1919-1937).
State property (confiscated in 1973 as part of the “Degenerate Art” campaign).
Galerie Ferdinand Möller, Berlin (since 1940, obtained through exchange).
Art dealer Ferdinand Möller, Zermützel (1943-1949).
Private collection, Hesse (since 1972, Hauswedell, Hamburg)
Since then in family ownership.

LITERATURE: Renate Ebner, Andreas Gabelmann, Erich Heckel.Werkverzeichnis der Druckgraphik, vol. 1: 1903-1913, Munich 2021, cat. no. 204 L.
Annemarie and Wolf-Dieter Dube, Erich Heckel: Das graphische Werk, vol. 2: Radierungen, Litographien, New York 1965, cat. rais. no. L 38
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Dr. Ernst Hauswedell, Hamburg, 187th auction, June 8-10, 1972, lot 739 (with ill. on p. 189).
Grafahrend, Dorothee, Kurt Reutti and the “Sicherung von Kunstgut aus der Faschisten-Aktion ‘Entartete Kunst’”, Freie Universität Berlin 2008, MA thesis. p. 101.
Reutti, Kurt, Werke aus der Aktion “Entartete Kunst”. Ferdinand Möller [secured in November 1946 in Zermützel near Neuruppin], typescript Berlin 1946-1951, (SMBK-ZA, V/ Sachthemat. Slg. 69). Cat. no. G 11.
www.geschkult.fu-berlin.de/e/db_entart_kunst/datenbank (no. 13549, erroneously attributed to Dube L114).

The "Brücke": Expressionism on Paper – The Passion of a German Collector

The Hessian collector recollects his first encounter with Expressionist art to this day: it was shortly after the end of World War II that he was struck by Karl Schmidt-Rottluff paintings on a visit to the Frankfurter Kunstkabinett. The gallery was one of the first in Germany to offer art lovers an opportunity to see works by the artists of the "Brücke" group again, as they had been ostracized as "degenerate" by the Nazis. One of the main reasons behind Hanna Bekker von Rath's decision to open the place on Börsenplatz in Frankfurt in 1947 was to provide a forum for these artists after the dark years of Nazi rule and to reintroduce them to the public. “These works blew me away” is how the collector recalls his initial reaction to the exhibits. He liked Schmidt-Rottluff's rugged, woodcut-like style and subsequently also developed a liking for the other members of the “Brücke”, whose style was so different from what had previously been considered “beautiful”. Together with his wife – who was particularly interested in the works of Otto Mueller and Emil Nolde – he visited many more exhibitions at the Frankfurt Kunstkabinett and other galleries.

Nevertheless, it was about more than just admiring them. In 1962, the couple bought their first Expressionist work at auction in Stuttgart – from Roman Norbert Ketterer, the uncle of the current owner of Ketterer Kunst: Ernst Ludwig Kirchner's woodcut "Drei Akte im Wald" from 1933 marked the beginning of the couple's extensive collection of "Brücke" prints.

He never had a specific system, says the collector. However, he avoided acquiring pieces that “many others had as well”. He was particularly interested in works produced in small numbers, pieces with a unique feature such as an additional coat of paint, or works that the artist used as trial proofs. But first and foremost, says the collector, “I made my purchases based on my taste.”

Good overall impression. The margins of the sheet lightly browned and with small faint brown spots. Some repaired tears and slight crease marks in the upper margin of the sheet, as well as small surface blemishes. A small loss in the left margin of the sheet.