About the work
From an elevated vantage point our gaze falls onto a narrow stream in the foreground and the rising slopes beyond, where peasants are working in the fields. This densely structured, expansive composition is framed by the edge of the forest in the right background. The painting was executed during a journey through the Palatinate and the countryside on and around the Rivers Saar and the Lahn which Heck undertook in the autumn of 1933. With the focus of his creative interest and ambition lying in the richness of form and the varied tonality of the autumnal landscape, this representation is distinguished by its austere tectonic form and rigid compositional structure. (...)
(from the catalogue text by Andreas Gabelmann)
Text authored and provided by Dr. Andreas Gabelmann, Art Historian
Dr. Andreas Gabelmann, art historian, born 1967 in Landau. Programmes of study in art history, architectural history and literature in Karlsruhe and Bamberg. 1999 Doctoral thesis on the Badenese Expressionist August Babberger (1885-1936). 2000 to 2002 Practical training at the Brücke-Museum Berlin. 2003 to 2004 Scientific staff member of the Städtisches Kunstmuseum Singen. Since 2005, active as a freelance art historian, author and curator for museums, art associations, galleries, foundations, artist estates, the press and publishing houses in Germany and Switzerland. Numerous publications on modern art with a focus on Expressionism and extending to contemporary art. Publication of the new catalogue raisonné of the printed graphic works of Erich Heckel (will appear in autumn of 2021). Lives and works in Radolfzell on Lake Constance.
