Picture "Pansies" (1914) (Unique piece)

The subject of the flower still life runs throughout the entire oeuvre of Erich Heckel. The present work depicts a summery flower arrangement with pansies that appear as if "just picked."

This piece was created in 1914, during a particularly tumultuous time for the artist. The year before, the artist group "Die Brücke" had dissolved following personal disputes. After the outbreak of World War I in the summer of 1914, Heckel volunteered as a nurse with the Red Cross in Berlin, where he was trained as a paramedic and then sent to Flanders, where he met James Ensor and Max Beckmann.

Gouache and pencil on paper, 1914, signed and dated. The authenticity of the work has been confirmed by the estate of Erich Heckel. The work is registered in the work archive. Motif size/sheet size 45 x 17.5 cm. Size in frame 66 x 38 cm as shown.

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About Erich Heckel

Erich Heckel (1883-1970) is one of the most important artists of German Expressionism. In 1905, together with Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Karl Schmidt-Rottluff and Fritz Bleyl, he founded the legendary artists' group "Die Brücke" in Dresden, which later Max Pechstein, Emil Nolde and Otto Mueller joined.

After World War I Heckel developed a new, cosmopolitan classicism that was accompanied by a more naturalistic approach and a brightening of the palette. In the 1920s, he produced numerous landscape works, including the unusually large charcoal drawing of the 'Westerholz Mill', which is still a popular touristic destination in Schleswig-Holstein.

Erich Heckel's works are represented in the world's leading museums and collections.

A one-of-a-kind or unique piece is a work of art personally created by the artist. It exists only once due to the type of production (oil painting, watercolour, drawing, lost-wax sculpture etc.).

In addition to the classic unique pieces, there are also the so-called "serial unique pieces". They present a series of works with the same colour, motif and technique, manually prepared by the same artist. The serial unique pieces are rooted in "serial art", a genre of modern art that aims to create an aesthetic effect through series, repetitions, and variations of the same objects or themes or a system of constant and variable elements or principles.

The historical starting point is considered to be Claude Monet's "Les Meules" (1890/1891), where, for the first time, a series was created that went beyond a mere group of works. The other artists, who addressed to the serial art, include Claude Monet, Piet Mondrian and above all Gerhard Richter.