Erich Heckel

About the work

This painting portrays the steep rocky coastline of Osterholz, where – apart from the intervening years of WWI – Heckel would spend the summer months as a respite from his frequent trips, and where he also returned several times in the following years. The work was executed after one of his final visits to relatives of his wife Siddi in Osterholz. In it he addresses the theme of Man's existence in and around the unspoiled natural countryside on the coast of the Flensburg Firth. The lonely wanderer is standing on the narrow stretch of beach beneath the house Heckel bought in 1919, which has changed very little until the present day. (...)
(from the catalogue text by Andreas Gabelmann)