The Man, 1913

About the Work

From his earliest woodcuts onward, Heckel bounded his depictions with a frame of lines that, as compositional elements in their own right, contribute to the overall effect. He set this self-portrait, for example, in an extremely narrow vertical rectangle. Along with the rendering of the facial features in a manner angular to the point of haggardness, this format serves to heighten the ascetic character of the likeness.

About the Acquisition

From 1900 onwards, the Frankfurt chemist and industrialist Carl Hagemann (1867‒1940) assembled one of the most important private collections of modern art. It included numerous paintings, drawings, watercolours and prints, especially by members of the artist group “Die Brücke”. After Carl Hagemann died in an accident during the Second World War, the then Städel director Ernst Holzinger arranged for Hagemann’s heirs to evacuate his collection with the museum’s collection. In gratitude, the family donated almost all of the works on paper to the Städel Museum in 1948. Further donations and permanent loans as well as purchases of paintings and watercolours from the Hagemann estate helped to compensate for the losses the museum had suffered in 1937 as part of the Nazi’s “Degenerate Art” campaign. Today, the Hagemann Collection forms the core of the Städel museum’s Expressionist collection.