Figure Sketch (Figurenskizze)

Erich Heckel

1 of 2

Object Label

Erich Heckel was a founding member of Die Brücke (The Bridge), the pioneering German Expressionist movement that resisted the strictures of academic art in favor of a freer, more emotional approach. It was inspired by what was then known as “primitive art,” mainly meaning non-Western painting and sculpture, especially from Africa and the Pacific Islands. Here, Heckel depicts a group of nude men in an idyllic rural landscape. The German Expressionists’ work was denounced by Adolf Hitler as “degenerate” in 1937, in part because of their unorthodox depictions of the nude. By 1944, Heckel’s woodblocks and printing plates had been destroyed by the Nazis, and other of his works were lost in Allied bombing raids.

Heckel’s painting Roquairol (1917), in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, inspired Iggy Pop’s pose for the cover of his album The Idiot.

Caption

Erich Heckel German, 1883–1970. Figure Sketch (Figurenskizze), 1927. Color lithograph in black, green, and violet on laid paper, Image: 22 5/16 x 16 9/16 in. (56.7 x 42.1 cm) Sheet: 27 1/8 x 20 15/16 in. (68.9 x 53.2 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Henry L. Batterman Fund, 58.166.2. © artist or artist's estate (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 58.166.2_PS9.jpg)

Gallery

Not on view

Collection

European Art

Title

Figure Sketch (Figurenskizze)

Date

1927

Geography

Place made: Germany

Medium

Color lithograph in black, green, and violet on laid paper

Classification

Print

Dimensions

Image: 22 5/16 x 16 9/16 in. (56.7 x 42.1 cm) Sheet: 27 1/8 x 20 15/16 in. (68.9 x 53.2 cm)

Signatures

Signed, "Erich Heckel 27" lower right margin, in pencil

Inscriptions

Lower right in graphite: "Figurenskizze"; lower right in graphite: "Erich Heckel 27"

Credit Line

Henry L. Batterman Fund

Accession Number

58.166.2

Rights

© artist or artist's estate

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