Siblings (Brother and Sister) [Geschwister]
1913
![Siblings (Brother and Sister) [Geschwister] by Erich Heckel](https://images.artheonmuseum.org/nga/thumb/siblings-brother-and-sister-geschwister-nga-39534.webp)
Medium
woodcut on wove paper
Dimensions
image: 42.2 × 30.7 cm (16 5/8 × 12 1/16 in.) sheet: 61 × 50.8 cm (24 × 20 in.)
Classification
Department
CG-W
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Rosenwald Collection
Accession Number
1950.17.301
Art Historical Context
**Siblings (Brother and Sister [Geschwister], 1913** Erich Heckel, a founding member of the revolutionary German Expressionist group Die Brücke (The Bridge), created this poignant woodcut during the group's most dynamic period. Formed in Dresden in 1905, Die Brücke artists rebelled against traditional academic art, embracing raw emotion, simplified forms, and primal subjects inspired by folk art, African sculpture, and medieval woodcuts. Heckel's depiction of two young siblings captures the movement's focus on human connection and vulnerability rendered with stark contrasts and angular lines...
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...