(Döbeln 1883–1970 Radolfzell)

Frau am Tisch (Siddi Heckel). 1914.

Oil on canvas.

Signed lower right: Heckel.

64 × 38.5 cm.

We would like to thank Christina Feilchenfeldt for her kind help and the academic assistance.

Provenance:
- Alfred Hess collection, Erfurt, acquired directly from the artist
- Hans Hess, Berlin/Paris/London, 1931 by descent from the above.
- Peter Herkenrath, Cologne.
- Auction Lempertz, Cologne, 17 May 1974, lot 269.
- Galerie Rosenbach, Hannover, acquired at the above auction.
- Swiss private collection, acquired from the above gallery on 24 June 1974 and since then owned by the same family.

The painting ‘Frau am Tisch’ was created in 1914. It portrays Siddi Heckel, Erich Heckel's girlfriend at the time and favourite model. The couple married in 1915, and a long and happy marriage ensued. This extraordinarily expressive painting embodying the aesthetic aims of the German Expressionist movement comes from one of the artist’s best periods — shortly after the Die Brücke group disbanded, during a time of political tension and probably only a few weeks before the outbreak of the World War I. During that time, Siddi was confined to bed for a few weeks due to a serious illness. According to Hüneke’s catalogue raisonné, the approximately 35 oil paintings that Heckel painted in 1914 are predominantly comprised of landscapes, with or without figures, as well as a few portraits. As can also be seen in ‘Frau am Tisch’, the depicted are not portrayed in an emotional manner or full of vitality, instead they are accompanied by a sense of inner melancholy, focused and reflective upon one’s own existence. They are a mirror of Heckel's emotional world. At the same time, Heckel remained true to his characteristic, sharply angular, dynamic Expressionist style.

For nearly 40 years, ‘Frau am Tisch’ was considered to be lost until it appeared at an auction in Germany in the mid-1970s. Through intensive research and with the competent help of Christina Feilchenfeldt, Koller has been able to reconstruct the highly interesting history of the painting and fill in the relevant gaps.

The present painting was originally part of the collection of Alfred Hess from Erfurt, Germany. Hess was one of the most important art patrons of his time. With passion and a keen sense for the contemporary avant-garde, he built up one of the most significant collections of German Expressionist art, collecting works by Kirchner, Franz Marc, Feiniger, Macke, Heckel, Schmidt-Rottluff, Pechstein and Otto Mueller, amongst others, until his death in 1931.
In addition to professional support from Hess, Erich Heckel and Alfred Hess must have also formed a personal friendship, as Heckel portrayed him several times. His collection contained ten oil paintings by Heckel, including the present portrait ‘Frau am Tisch’, which Hess probably acquired directly from the artist.
After the death of Alfred Hess, the art collection passed to his son Hans Hess. He emigrated to France in the spring of 1933 and later to England. The collection remained in the care of his mother Tekla Hess.

Hoping to protect the works of art in Switzerland from Nazi seizure and if an opportunity arose, to also find buyers for the works of art, Tekla Hess sent around 100 works to Basel on a ‘free pass’ (temporary export license) in the summer of 1933. The paintings, including ‘Frau am Tisch’, were presented in the exhibition ‘Moderne deutsche Malerei aus Privatbesitz’ in the Kunsthalle Basel in October. One year later the portrait was shown at the Kunsthaus Zürich, where it remained for the time being after the exhibition, together with the other works from the collection. Despite the increasing repression against all Jews in Germany, Tekla Hess asked the then-director of the Kunsthaus Zürich to send the works in their possession back to Germany. After the war, Tekla Hess stated in an affidavit that the Gestapo had demanded that the pictures of the collection that were still in Switzerland be returned to Germany. Seventy works of art were transported to the Kölnischer Kunstverein in March of 1937, including our work by Erich Heckel.

The then-director of the Kölnischer Kunstverein, Walter Klug, promised Mrs. Hess safekeeping of the pictures free of charge, and subsequently also offered them for sale. It was through this process that, amongst others, the important painting ‘Berliner Strassenszene’ by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, which had also been sent to Basel and Zurich and then ordered back to Germany, was sold by the Kölnischer Kunstverein to the collector Carl Hagemann.
Tekla Hess, who along with her husband was also of Jewish descent, was forced to flee from the Nazi regime and emigrated to England in 1939, where her son was already situated. She had been able to send a part of the collection, primarily works on paper as well as some paintings, to her son before her emigration to England. Another part of the collection remained at the Kölnischer Kunstverein. The caretaker of the Kunstverein, Joseph Jenniches, had built a large wooden crate for the storage of the pictures and placed it in the cellar of the Kunstverein. This crate also contained the portrait of Siddi Heckel.
During an air raid on 29 July 1943, the Kölnischer Kunstverein burned down to the cellar. The artworks and objects in the basement were brought to safety in a transport vehicle the next day. Due to a lack of space, or so it was later called, the crate with the pictures from the Hess Collection was left behind and then forgotten. When Tekla Hess tried after the war to find out about the whereabouts of the stored pictures, she was informed that the pictures were burned and no longer available.

What exactly had happened to the painting ‘Frau am Tisch’ cannot be fully clarified to this day. When Jenniches returned from war captivity in 1945, he discovered the cellar partly under water, with the Hess crate broken open. It is known that Jenniches had stolen and sold individual works from the crate before the war, for which he had been charged and convicted in 1950.

The portrait of Siddi then found its way to the painter Peter Herkenrath. As a witness in the court case, he admitted that he had acquired from Jenniches two of his four pictures from the Hess collection, but he did not mention ‘Frau am Tisch’ in that case. It is also known that Herkenrath had himself been to the cellar at the Kölnischer Kunstverein and had taken a Heckel painting from the Hess crate. However, it cannot be proven whether it was the present work.
The painting was originally 80 x 70 cm, depicting a table and slightly more background. The catalogue raisonné of the paintings by Erich Heckel compiled by Paul Vogt in 1965 already named Herkenrath as owner of the work, as well as the fact that due to its war damage the work had already been cut down by that time, with the collaboration of Erich Heckel, who also re-signed it. The current owners acquired the painting on 24 June 1974 at Art Basel from the art dealer Detlev Rosenbach, who had purchased the work shortly before at a Lempertz auction.

Due to the findings of the provenance research on the present work, the current owner family contacted the heirs of Alfred Hess, with whom an agreement within the framework of a fair and just solution in adherence to the Washington Principles has been concluded, allowing us to auction the painting on 2 July 2021.


Exhibited:
- Basel 1933, Moderne Deutsche Malerei aus Privatbesitz, Kunsthalle Basel, 7–29 October 1933, no. 17.
- Zurich 1934, Neue Deutsche Malerei, Kunsthaus Zürich, sales exhibition, 21 June–15 July 1934, no. 47.

Literature:
- Andreas Hüneke: Erich Heckel. Werkverzeichnis der Gemälde, Wandbilder und Skulpturen, vol. I (1904–1918), Munich 2017, p. 281, no. 1914–4 (with b/w ill.).
- Paul Vogt: Erich Heckel, Recklinghausen 1965, no. 1914–3 (with ill.).