Details — Click to read
On structured chamois hand-made paper. Signed on the lower right. Dated on the lower left and marked “Ostende”. In the lower left margin titled “Langer Kanal” and with the collectors-stamp Dr. Heinrich Stinnes, Lugt 1376a in violet.
In mid-May 1915, Erich Heckel, who worked as a Red Cross paramedic during the First World War, was transferred to the Belgian coastal town of Ostend. The town enjoyed a reputation as a spa and seaside resort, which the artist was also able to enjoy during the few free hours of his stay there. Ostend is crossed by a striking canal that connects the North Sea with the cities of Bruges and Ghent, after which it is named. Heckel evidently made this the subject of his woodcut. In clear black and white contrast, he depicts the waterway with a restless sky. A storm seems to be approaching, through which the sun is forcing its way with its dazzling light. Given that the work was created during the First World War, Heckel’s hope for peace can be read into this apocalyptic landscape scene, which he repeatedly longed for in his letters during this period.
In 1916, he created the small tempera work ‘Kleine Flusslandschaft’ (Vogt 1916/13; Van Ham, Cologne, 248th auction ‘Moderne und Zeitgenössische Kunst/ Photographie’, lot 247, 31 May 2006), which comes very close to the woodcut motif. However, the apocalyptic effect of the sky is abandoned here in favour of a more romantic landscape study.
