Erich Heckel

Häuser bei Rom was painted during Erich Heckel’s trip to Italy from February to May 1909. Following the tradition of going on a Grand Tour to the south of Europe. Heckel’s journey took him from Verona, Padua, Florence, Venice and Ravenna to Rome, where the present double-sided work was executed. During the trip, Heckel worked on a series of paintings which reflect the vibrant colours of the Italian landscape as well as an increased clarification of forms in his painting (fig. 1). In Italy Heckel saw fine examples of Etruscan art whose rigour, simplification and spirituality he began to emulate in his own work. Far from having a classicising influence on the artist, Heckel’s Italian sojourn inspired a greater sense of harmony and simplification in his landscape painting.

1908-09 were crucial years in Heckel’s artistic development when his technical and inspirational areas of focus were constantly developing. Stylistically, Häuser bei Rom marks a dramatic move away from the heavy impasto technique that the artist was using in 1907 while strongly influenced by the work of Van Gogh and Neo-Impressionism. Instead, the artist developed a clearer style of painting where the brushstrokes are applied in rapid, decisive gestures and overall the palette is much lighter than the one used earlier. Anton Henze noted that around the time the present work was executed, Heckel began diluting his paints with varnish, attempting to invent a thin distemper that would suit his rapid and impulsive brushwork (A. Henze, Erich Heckel, Leben und Werk, Stuttgart & Zurich, 1983, pp. 26-27). As in the present work and like many of his fellow artists associated with the Brücke, such as Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Hermann Max Pechstein and Karl Schmidt-Rottluff, Heckel often painted both sides of the canvas when he lacked the funds to buy additional materials.

The verso of the present canvas, titled Landschaft bei Rom, bears close references to Erich Heckel’s earlier painting Ziegelei (Dangast) from 1907 (fig. 2). His fascination with signs of industrialisation in remote landscapes seems to be the reason for the artist’s return to the same subject matter repeatedly. The striking orange chimneys and the expressively strongly red-coloured roofs of the houses recall the colours of the Fauves as much as the dominating yellow and green on the verso of the present work. Häuser bei Rom/Landschaft bei Rom captures uniquely the sunlit atmosphere of the Italian capital and its surrounding landscape.

One of the major influences on Heckel’s work at the end of 1908 and the beginning of 1909 was that of the Fauves (fig. 3 and fig. 4). Pechstein had spent time in Paris with the Fauves in 1907-08 and expressed his respect for the movement to his colleagues in Germany. Additionally, works by Derain, Van Dongen, Friesz, Marquet and Vlaminck were exhibited in Dresden at the Kunstsalon Richter in September 1908 at the same time as works by members of Die Brücke. Of crucial importance too was an exhibition of works by Matisse shown at Paul Cassirer’s gallery in Berlin in January 1909. Clearly, Heckel knew of the French master’s work and the overall energy and vibrancy of Häuser bei Rom reflects the potency of this influence. It is a celebration of colour and a testimony of German Expressionism in its prime period.

FIG. 1, Erich Heckel, Landschaft bei Rom, 1909, oil on canvas, Private Collection
FIG. 2, Erich Heckel, Ziegelei (Dangast), 1907, oil on canvas, Museo de Arte Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid
FIG. 3, André Derain, Le Pont de Waterloo, 1905, oil on canvas, Museo de Arte Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid
FIG. 4. Maurice de Vlaminck, Le Pont de Chatou, 1905-06, oil on canvas, Musée de l’Annonciade, Saint Tropez