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On Japanese paper. Fully signed and dated in pencil lower right.
This etching by Erich Heckel seems to have been completely removed from the temporal context of the First World War in which it was created. The artist had been exploring the medium of film since 1912 and created works for a number of film scenes that had impressed him. It was primarily the Danish actress Asta Nielsen (1881-1972) and her expressive acting that fascinated him. She was the first female film star in German silent cinema. He portrayed her in 1912 in the painting ‘Dying Pierrot’ (Voigt 1912/18, destroyed) and in 1913 in ‘Dead Pierrot’ (Asta Nielsen as Pierrot)” (Voigt 1913/17, whereabouts unknown). In 1916, Heckel’s most artistically productive year during the First World War, he apparently remembered this. The actress is depicted at the dressing table in a pensive pose. She is not looking in the mirror. The Pierrot costume from her performance hangs on the wall behind her on the right. Heckel shows here a moment of pause and self-reflection, which Heckel probably also sought for himself during the war.
After the I. After the First World War, the actress once again found her way into the artist’s work. In 1919 he created the portrait woodcut ‘A. N. (Portrait Asta Nielsen)’ (Dube H 322), as well as the painting ‘Paar (Asta Nielsen)’ (Voigt 1924/9, Städtische Galerie Frankfurt) in 1924 and the portrait ‘Asta Nielsen (als Hedda Gabler)’ (Voigt 1925/2, location unknown) in 1925.
