Stilleben mit Holzfigur

Seen from a slightly elevated viewpoint, Erich Heckel painted an array of objects loosely grouped on a green table. Almost every item is delineated by black contours. Colors are reduced to simple contrasts. A band along the right-hand margin has been left largely unpainted. An unidentified painting hovers in the background. Beside the red bowl of fruit, a yellow statue of a standing girl introduces a forceful vertical accent. Her left hand reaches across her body, just below her breasts, towards her other arm. The girl’s casual stance is characteristic of the way in which the artists of Die Brücke posed their models. Although Heckel was the first to make sculptures, the figure shown here was carved by his friend Ernst Ludwig Kirchner. There is nothing to indicate in whose studio the still life was painted. Kirchner painted the same space (Doris und Heckel am Tisch, 1910). Both artists, who lived in close proximity, worked closely together during this time.