Brother and Sister (Geschwister)
1929
Image not available — this artwork is under copyright
View on museum website →Medium
lithograph
Classification
Department
CG-W
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Rosenwald Collection
Accession Number
1950.1.1
Art Historical Context
Erich Heckel’s *Brother and Sister (Gwister)*, a 9 lithograph, captures the intimate bond between siblings in the, emotive style of German Expressionism. As a founding member of Die Brücke (The Bridge), the influential Dresden-based group launched in 1905, Heckel rejected academic traditions for bold, distorted forms and psychological depth. By 1929, amid the Weimar Republic—marked by economic instability and cultural ferment—Heckel had evolved his practice, yet retained the group’s emphasis on human connection and inner truth. Lithography, Heckel’s chosen medium here, exemplifies his mastery...
About the Artist
Erich Heckel
Erich Heckel (1883–1970) was born in Döbeln, Saxony, the son of a railway engineer. He attended the Realgymnasium in Chemnitz and went on to study architecture in Dresden, where he encountered the fellow students who would become his closest artistic collaborators. In 1905, together with Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Karl Schmidt-Rottluff, and Fritz Bleyl, Heckel co-founded Die Brücke — The Bridge — an E...