Am Bleiberg. 1942.
Watercolor over pencil.
Signed, dated and titled in lower right. On firm off-white laid paper. 53 x 69.5 cm (20.8 x 27.3 in), the full sheet. [JS].

• Large-size watercolor in which Heckel shows in expressionist mastery in form of a casual distribution of the color fields and the crystaline colors.
• Fine document of Heckel's contemplative passion for nature, made during his stay in Carinthia in the summer of the war year 1942.
• Shown in exhibitions in 1969 and in 1983.
• For the first time on the international auction market (source: artprice.com).

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

PROVENANCE: Artist's estate.
Hermann Gerlinger Collection, Würzburg (acquired from the above in 1979, with the collector's stamp on the reverse, Lugt 6032).

EXHIBITION: Erich Heckel in Kärnten, Kärtner Landesgalerie, Klagenfurt 1969, cat. no. 41.
Erich Heckel 1883-1970. Aquarelle, Zeichnungen. Ausstellung zum 100. Geburtstag des Malers, Städtische Galerie, Würzburg, 1983, no. 95.
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).
Erich Heckel. Einfühlung und Ausdruck, ed. by Daniel J. Schreiber, ex. cat. Buchheim Museum, Bernried, Ocotber 31, 2020 - March 7, 2021, p. 349 (with illu.).

LITERATURE: Heinz Spielmann (ed.), Die Maler der Brücke. Sammlung Hermann Gerlinger, Stuttgart 1995, p. 335, SHG no. 530 (with illu.).
Hermann Gerlinger, Katja Schneider (eds.), Die Maler der Brücke. Inventory catalog Hermann Gerlinger Collection, Halle (Saale) 2005, p. 247, SHG no. 554 (with illu.).

In very good condition. Edges with faint isolated rubbed spots.