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©
Erich Heckel, VEGAP, Madrid
Erich Heckel

Bathers on the Beach

1913
Watercolor and pencil on Paper.
38.5 x 49.5 cm
Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid
Inv. no.
580
(
1970.36
)
Room 34
Level 1
Permanent Collection
30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 Postpop rooms Rodin room
30 18th and 19th Centuries. Transatlantic Relations 31 19th Century. American Landscape and Environmental Awareness 32 19th Century. American Landscape and Urban Life 33 19th Century. The Impressionist Period 34 20th Century. Expressionist Landscapes 35 20th Century. Expressionist Portraits 36 20th Century. The Language of the Body 37 20th Century. Urban unrest 38 20th Century. Flowers 39 20th Century. Pioneers of abstraction 40 20th Century. Popular flavor 41 20th Century. The Cubist Tradition I 42 20th Century. The Cubist Tradition II 43 20th Century. Abstract Utopias 44 20th Century. Dada and Surrealism 45 20th Century. Interwar Realisms 46 20th Century. American Abstraction I 48 20th Century. Post-ward American Art 49 20th Century. Post-ward European Figurative Art 50 20th Century. Informalisms 51 20th Century. Homo Ludens 52 20th Century. Pop Art 53 Postpop rooms: Ayako Rokakku 54 Postpop rooms: Ayako Rokakku 55 Postpop rooms: Ayako Rokakku 56 Postpop rooms: Ayako Rokakku Rodin Exhibition room

In Bathers on the Beach, a watercolour full of luminosity and vibrant colour executed in summer 1913 in Osterholz on the north coast of the Baltic Sea, during his first trip to this part of northern Europe, Heckel depicts one of the favourite themes of the Die Brücke group: the relation of man with Nature. As in his scenes of nudes in landscape settings painted by the Moritzburg Lakes in summer 1909, the compositions of naked bathers enjoying the water and sand of a beach express the painter’s wish to return man to an ideal state of at-oneness with his inner self and the natural environment.

In mid June 1913, after a short stay near Hamburg at the home of Gustav Schiefer, one of the main patrons of the young Die Brücke artists, Erich Heckel and his wife Sidi made a boat trip along Germany’s Baltic coast. The artist was so captivated with the undulating landscape of the outskirts of Osterholz that the couple decided to stay there and rent an old property belonging to a boat builder called Peter Hansen. Heckel left a testimony of this first visit in several letters sent to his mentor of those years, the historian Walter Kaesbach, whom he told of his works, “among them a number of drawings that may perhaps survive.” He also sent him high-flown descriptions of the undulating scenery and rugged coastline that provided a backdrop to his figures: “Naked forms, brilliant yellow, leap about in the blue-black water, while the rocks, blue and darktoned, and the limestone cliffs cast long shadows on the shore.”

This large watercolour — its size indicates the importance Heckel attached to the medium — also evidences a significant transformation in his painting. In this remote northern spot the painter’s work became more melancholic and less optimistic, while his forms grew more geometric and angular.

Paloma Alarcó

20th Century20th Century - European painting. ExpressionismWork on paperWatercolor and pencilPaper
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Bathers on the Beach. Bañistas en la playa, 1913
Bathers on the Beach
Erich Heckel

©

Erich Heckel, VEGAP, Madrid

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The exploitation rights of the images correspond to the Fundacion Coleccion Thyssen-Bornemisza, F.S.P. The Fundación authorizes the downloading of high-resolution images from its website for private use, use for educational and research purposes and non-commercial uses.

However, photographed works are protected by copyright. Therefore, regardless of the terms of use of the images set out below by the Foundation, it will be necessary to obtain a license from VEGAP (www.vegap.es), or from the corresponding collective management organization in the country where the work is going to be used or, where appropriate, from the holder of their rights in order to reproduce or exploit the work.

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Bathers on the Beach. Bañistas en la playa, 1913
Bathers on the Beach
Erich Heckel

©

Erich Heckel, VEGAP, Madrid

Terms of Use

The Photo Library of the Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza offers sale and rental service of photographic material of all the works on its Permanent Collection.

To request images or permits for commercial use in academic or research publications, that is, catalogues of other institutions, monographs and other specialized publications, you should contact the Museum's Photo Library by email at the e-mail @email.

To request images or permits for other commercial or advertising uses (general publications, merchandising, exhibitions, audio-visual works, web pages, etc.), you should contact the Museum's Commercial Archive by email at the e-mail @email.

The Photo Library and the Museum's Commercial Archive manage the worldwide distribution of images of the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza works, as well as their reproduction rights. The applicable rates are calculated based on the nature and proposed use of the images, as well as the availability of the requested image.

Requests for scans or new photographs will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. Once approved, an additional fee will apply. Re-photographing a work will require a minimum of six weeks to complete.

However, photographed works are protected by copyright. Therefore, regardless of the terms of use of the photographs set out below by the Foundation, it will be necessary to obtain a license from  VEGAP (Visual Entidad de Gestión de Artistas Plásticos www.vegap.es) or from the corresponding collective management organizations in the country where the work is going to be used or, where appropriate, from the holder of their rights in order to reproduce or exploit the work.

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