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Erich Heckel in Flanders

Exhibition
12.10.24 – 26.01.25

Erich Heckel Fruhling

This fall, the Museum of Fine Arts Ghent is dedicating an exhibition to the German artist Erich Heckel (1883-1970). Heckel was one of the leading figures of German Expressionism and a co-founder of the artists' association Brücke. During World War I, he worked as an orderly for the Red Cross in Roeselare, Ostend, and Ghent. His fascination with the Flemish landscapes and cities is reflected in striking artworks: romantic and expressive, spiritual and tangible, and above all, hopeful. With this monographic exhibition, the MSK highlights a lesser-known but particularly intriguing period of this influential artist.

On view in the exhibition

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12 Erich Heckel Roquairol 1917 Brücke Museum Foto Nick Ash
Erich Heckel, 'Roquairol', 1917, Brücke-Museum, Foto: Nick Ash © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn / SABAM Belgium 2024
05 Erich Heckel Verwundeter Matrose 1915 Nachlass Erich Heckel
Erich Heckel, 'Verwundeter Matrose', 1915, Nachlass Erich Heckel © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn / SABAM Belgium 2024
06 Erich Heckel Flandrische Ebene 1916 Museum Abteiberg Mönchengladbach Foto Achim Kukulies
Erich Heckel, 'Flandrische Ebene', 1916, Museum Abteiberg Mönchengladbach, Foto: Achim Kukulies © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn / SABAM Belgium 2024
02 Erich Heckel Zwei Verwundete 1914 Museum Folkwang Essen ARTOTHEK Nachlass Erich Heckel Hemmenhofen
Erich Heckel, 'Zwei Verwundete', 1914, Museum Folkwang, Essen - ARTOTHEK, © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn / SABAM Belgium 2024
11 Erich Heckel De Augustijnenrei in Brugge in de ochtend ca 1917 MSK Gent SABAM Belgium 2023
Erich Heckel, 'Häuser am Morgen', 1917, MSK Gent, © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn / SABAM Belgium 2024
13 Erich Heckel Frühling 1918 bpk Nationalgalerie SMB
Erich Heckel, 'Frühling (Lente)', 1918, Nationalgalerie, bpk - Nationalgalerie, SMB © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn / SABAM Belgium 2024
09 Erich Heckel Madonna von Ostende 1916 Nachlass Erich Heckel
Erich Heckel, 'Madonna von Ostende', 1915, Nachlass Erich Heckel, Hemmenhofen, © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn / SABAM Belgium 2024
16 Erich Heckel James Ensor 1930 Museum Ludwig
Erich Heckel, 'James Ensor', 1930, Museum Ludwig, Keulen © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn / SABAM Belgium 2024
07 Erich Heckel Frühling in Flandern 1916 Osthaus Museum Hagen photo Achim Kukulies Düsseldorf Germany
Erich Heckel, 'Frühling in Flandern', 1916, Osthaus Museum Hagen, Foto: Achim Kukulies, Düsseldorf, Germany © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn / SABAM Belgium 2024
08 Erich Heckel Nordsee 1916 Brücke Museum Foto Nick Ash
Erich Heckel, 'Nordsee', 1916, Brücke-Museum, Foto: Nick Ash © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn / SABAM Belgium 2024
10 Erich Heckel Männer am Meer 1916 Albertinum
Erich Heckel, 'Männer am Meer', 1916, Albertinum | GNM, Inv.-Nr. 2011/38 © Foto: Albertinum | GNM, Staatliche, Kunstsammlungen Dresden, Elke Estel/Hans-Peter Klut © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn / SABAM Belgium 2024
14 Erich Heckel Flusslandschaft An der Lys 1919 Kunstmuseen Krefeld Kunstmuseen Krefeld Volker Döhne ARTOTHEK
Erich Heckel, 'Flusslandschaft (An der Lys)', 1919, Kunstmuseen Krefeld, Kunstmuseen Krefeld - Volker Döhne - ARTOTHEK, © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn / SABAM Belgium 2024
1883
1904-1905
January-March 1915
May 1915
November 1915
March 1916
May 1916
Christmas 1916
May 1917
November 1917
October 1918
November 1918
1924
1970

1883

Reinhold Erich Heckel is born on 31 July in Döbeln (Saxony). His father Wilhelm Julius Heckel is a railway engineer, and his mother Margarete Elisabeth Barth hails from a Thuringian manufacturing family.

15 Erich Heckel Bärtiger Mann Selbestbildnis 1919 bpk Nationalgalerie SMB Jörg P Anders

1904-1905

In April, he enrols at the Royal Saxon Polytechnical College in Dresden to study architecture. His fellow students include Ernst Ludwig Kirchner and Fritz Bleyl; Schmidt Rottluff joins a year later. With amateur models, they practice the so called Viertelstundenakt, in which the model strikes a different stance every fifteen minutes, the intention being to sketch the constantly changing poses in a spontaneous and intuitive manner. On 7 June, the four friends – Bleyl, Heckel, Kirchner and Schmidt Rottluff –found the Brücke artists’ group. In their programme, they express their ‘belief in development and in a new generation of both makers and connoisseurs’, and ‘we call on all young people’ to oppose ‘the established, older powers.

January-March 1915

In mid January, Heckel starts as a volunteer orderly in Berlin. For the first time, he is confronted with seriously wounded soldiers. For a period of six weeks – sometimes working fourteen hours a day – he treats shell shocked patients, among others. On 5 March, he receives his identification papers and is assigned to the Red Cross Unit of the Fourth Army. Together with the accompanying armband (Neutralitätszeichen), the document entitles the
bearer to ‘free billeting, medical care and third class train travel for missions’. Specially equipped hospital trains are used to transport the wounded. Kaesbach heads up the
Sanitätseinheit, a group that also includes painters Max Kaus, Anton Kerschbaumer, Otto Herbig and the poet Ernst Morwitz. On 7 March, the group travels by train via Cologne, Brussels and Ghent to Roeselare.

04 Erich Heckel Travelling the Coastal Road Ostend Knokke 1915 Schleswig Landesmuseum Schloss Gottorf

May 1915

On 15 May, the Kaesbach platoon is relieved and transferred to Ostend, where an assembly point for sick and injured soldiers has been set up in Oostende Stad station. Although they remain responsible for the transportation of wounded soldiers, their main task is to care for ‘healthy’ ones, including the many marines stationed at the coast. Since the start of the occupation, the city has expanded into an almost impregnable war port and is regularly bombed by the Allies.

03 Erich Heckel Strand in Oostende 1915 Galerie Ronny Van de Velde

November 1915

Kaesbach’s platoon is billeted at Hotel Ellen on the Van Iseghemlaan. From his window, Heckel can see James Ensor’s mother’s shop. The two have certainly met already in March of that year, but their relationship intensifies thanks to their ‘neighbourly proximity’. Heckel offers the artist his full support, mediates in the sale of his work to German collectors, and the two exchange artworks.

05 Erich Heckel Verwundeter Matrose 1915 Nachlass Erich Heckel

March 1916

Heckel stays in Ghent until the beginning of August 1916. At Gent Sint Pieters station, he is tasked with organising the Krankensammelstelle, an assembly point for the wounded and sick. In addition to paintings, Heckel is chiefly occupied with making lithographs, in contrast to the woodcuts he created during his first sojourn in Ostend. Little is known about his place of residence, but he did visit the studio of George Minne in the Holstraat, and that of Albert Baertsoen on the Coupure which Georg von Wick, the Commandant of Ghent, had commandeered.

06 Erich Heckel Flandrische Ebene 1916 Museum Abteiberg Mönchengladbach Foto Achim Kukulies

May 1916

On fine days, Heckel likes to walk from Ghent to Sint Martens Latem, where he visits Albijn Van den Abeele and Albert Servaes. In late May, the staff is reorganised, and Heckel is put in charge of the platoon. In his new role, he regularly commutes between Ostend and Ghent and during missions also visits Aachen, Brussels and Tervuren. He travels to Rethel via Namur, Dinant and Charleville Mézières.

08 Erich Heckel Nordsee 1916 Brücke Museum Foto Nick Ash

Christmas 1916

Following the example of Heckel’s Madonna of Ostend from 1915, the artists’ group conceives the idea of creating a group work for the Christmas festivities, a triptych with the Worship by the Shepherds as its theme; Heckel agrees to paint the side panels.

09 Erich Heckel Madonna von Ostende 1916 Nachlass Erich Heckel

May 1917

After the exceptionally hard winter of 1916–17, Ostend comes increasingly under fire, with shelling becoming more intense as the year progresses. Heckel is put in charge of the construction of a bomb shelter, which nevertheless drags on. To protect against air raids, the windows of the station must also be blacked out. As an alternative, the artists’ group cover the panes with painted figures, decorative elements and almost abstract motifs. Heckel closely studies the work of the German Romantic writer Jean Paul. His novel
Titan inspires him to work on a series of paintings.

11 Erich Heckel De Augustijnenrei in Brugge in de ochtend ca 1917 MSK Gent SABAM Belgium 2023

November 1917

In the Kunstsalon Ludwig Schames in Frankfurt am Main, a major exhibition is staged featuring 126 works by Heckel, including 23 paintings from his Flemish period. Like all other exhibitions of his work during the war, Heckel was unable to see it in person.

12 Erich Heckel Roquairol 1917 Brücke Museum Foto Nick Ash

October 1918

On 1 October, the Germans start preparing for their withdrawal from Ostend, which will become a reality fourteen days later. The retreat is highly chaotic: Heckel is in Ghent on 20 October, and ten days later he is in Lokeren. He does not leave Antwerp until 15 November, arriving in Berlin on 20 November.

13 Erich Heckel Frühling 1918 bpk Nationalgalerie SMB

November 1918

Heckel is co founder of the Arbeitsrat für Kunst and a temporary member of the Novembergruppe. Berlin’s Nationalgalerie acquires two paintings from the Flemish period

14 Erich Heckel Flusslandschaft An der Lys 1919 Kunstmuseen Krefeld Kunstmuseen Krefeld Volker Döhne ARTOTHEK

1924

In the autumn, Heckel returns to Flanders with Siddi. They visit Ensor in Ostend. In the same year, Heckel makes his first portrait of the celebrated artist (destroyed in 1944). Heckel paints a second version in 1930

16 Erich Heckel James Ensor 1930 Museum Ludwig

1970

Heckel dies on 27 January in Radolfzell am Bodensee.