Praying Woman

1905–1907

A draughtsman in Wilhelm Kreis’s office

From 1905 Heckel works in the architectural office of Wilhelm Kreis; at the same time he rents a former butcher’s shop at Berlinerstrasse 60 as a shared studio for the whole Die Brücke group. He will leave Kreis’s office in 1907.

1905–1913

Secretary, treasurer and manager of Die Brücke

Heckel is the group’s secretary and treasurer and often its business manager: he builds contacts with other up-and-coming artists, such as the Munich-based Franz Marc, which brings Die Brücke publicity, even a mention in the almanac of the Blaue Reiter. His brother introduced the group to African sculpture.

1906–1907

Die Brücke exhibitions in Löbtau

While working for Kreis, Heckel persuades the lamp manufacturer Max Seifert to give wall space and displays at his factory in Löbtau to a Die Brücke exhibition, but it flops: there is a single favourable review, and the Dresden police bar Heckel’s poster from public display. In 1906–1907 another exhibition follows there, devoted exclusively to graphics and including woodcuts by Wassily Kandinsky, and the public is again unmoved.

1907

A painting trip to Dangast

Having left Kreis’s office, Heckel goes to Dangast to make studies; Brickworks (Dangast), now in the Thyssen-Bornemisza collection, is dated to that year.

July 1907

Leaves Kreis’s office for painting

In July 1907 Heckel resigns from Wilhelm Kreis’s office in order to become a full-time artist.

1909

A journey to Italy

Heckel travels in Italy: Verona, Padua, Venice, Rome.