'Garden wall', etching on paper, 22 cm x 17,5 cm plate size, 30,5 cm x 24,5 cm mount inside, signed, 63 dated, titled, from an edition of 31 copies, partly a little bit stained, literature: Wvz. Ebner/Gabelmann 1049 R.
Erich Heckel is regarded as one of the main representatives of German Expressionism. During his studies of architecture the artist began to paint autodidactically under the influence of Munch, van Gogh and the Fauves. With his fellow students Karl Schmidt-Rottluff and Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Heckel founded the artists' group ''Die Brücke'' in 1905. Strong forms and equally strong colours formed his works at this time. However, they became increasingly milder. His graphic work includes woodcuts as well as etchings, such as that of the ''Garden Wall''. The structure of the individual wall stones can be seen on the printed plate, so the viewer is brought very close. The left margin of the sheet shows an open flower, the plants sprouting from the ground in the garden, and two small figures placed on the wall like toy figurines. In terms of scale, it seems to be inspired by the idea of Romanticism: the small human being juxtaposed with the great splendour of nature. Based on the date (1963), the print can be classified as one of the artist's late works and could well have been observed in the garden at home. Almost as if through the eyes of a child, who himself is hardly taller than a garden wall and lets the figures on the wall play in just cheerful, childlike fantasy.
