Neapolitan Singer (Neapolitanische Sängerin)

1909

Erich Heckel, Max Pechstein (see work on view nearby), and the other artists of Die Brücke (The Bridge), an early German Expressionist group founded in 1905, were fascinated by the decadent culture of urban nightclubs and cabarets, a theme that had roots in works by nineteenth-century artists including Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. Here, Heckel experimented with raw lines and lurid, contrasting colors that convey a sense of overstimulation and anxiety.