Landscape on the fjord
(Landschaft an der Förde)
1939

• Erich HECKEL

With its two fully worked compositions on the back and front of the canvas, this painting offers a fascinating insight into Heckel’s personal history and the development of his art. The image of the couple dancing from 1923 on one side of this work is a positive expression of the high spirits felt in Germany at the height of the Weimar Republic. Then artists felt free to express their creativity at a time when Germany was again prosperous following the difficulties and depravation it suffered after the First World War, and before the rise of Fascism.

With the rise of the Nazis, Heckel was declared a Degenerate Artist; thus he was forbidden to practice his profession. Unable to sell works, and with art supplies being critically scarce, it was common practice for artists to paint over old canvases or use the back of works they were no longer able to legally sell.  In this instance, the landscape painted in 1939 still has German Expressionist qualities through the use of bold colours which sharply define the many distinct areas of the well worked countryside. While a landscape may seem to be a 'safe' option for a Degenerate artist, Heckel here cannot completely disguise his German Expressionist heritage. There may also be a hint of bitter reflection in this work as he is possibly remembering the pre-war years when he had been visiting the lake and mountain regions of Austria and Switzerland with his artist colleagues. He painted many wonderful landscapes in the mid to late 1920s.