Heckel, Erich (1883-1970)

German painter, lithographer, and illustrator. Trained as an architect, he turned to painting 1905, founding the German expressionist group die Brücke 1905 with fellow students Ernst Ludwig Kirchner and Karl Schmidt-Rottluff. Two Men at a Table 1912 (Kunsthaus, Hamburg) exemplifies his severe, angular, heavily contoured style. His most expressive tool was the coloured woodcut.

Heckel was also a prolific painter in oil, watercolour, and tempera, working in a diagrammatic, fluid style, as in Women by a Lake 1913 (Wilhelm-Lehmbruck Museum, Duisburg). His subject matter ranges from starved figures, interiors, and landscapes to primitive nudes in bucolic settings.