About the Artwork
In this still life, Erich Heckel places a bouquet crowned by two sunflowers against a wall with painted decoration in his studio in Osterholz on the coast of Baltic Sea. Heckel and other expressionist artists of Die Brücke (The Bridge) had an affinity with sunflowers, rooted in their devotion to Vincent van Gogh, who was well-known for treating this subject. Heckel and his fellow Brücke members first saw Van Gogh’s pictures at the Galerie Arnold in Dresden in 1905, about four months after they had founded their collective. In the words of expressionist writer Ernst Blass, “Van Gogh stood for expression and experience as opposed to Impressionism and Naturalism . . . The courage of one’s own means of expression.” Heckel’s use of distortions and belief in the primacy of the power of color were deeply informed by Van Gogh’s work.
Sunflowers
1920
Erich Heckel
1883 - 1970
German
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Oil on canvas
Unframed: 30 1/2 × 27 3/4 inches (77.5 × 70.5 cm) Framed: 34 9/16 × 30 13/16 × 2 5/8 inches (87.8 × 78.3 × 6.7 cm)
Paintings
European Modern Art to 1970
City of Detroit Purchase
21.209
Restricted
Markings
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Provenance
1921-present, purchase by the Detroit Institute of Arts (Detroit, Michigan, USA)For more information on provenance, please visit:
Provenance pageExhibition History
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The exhibition history of a number of objects in our collection only begins after their acquisition by the museum, and may reflect an incomplete record.
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Vogt, Paul. Erick Heckel. Recklinghausen, Germany, 1965, no. 1920.18 (ill.).
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Credit Line for Reproduction
Erich Heckel, Sunflowers, 1920, oil on canvas. Detroit Institute of Arts, City of Detroit Purchase, 21.209.
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