Erich Heckel's Männerbildnis is an icon of German Expressionism and an emblematic image of angst and trauma in the aftermath of war. In the catalogue of the German Expressionist prints from the Specks Collection, Reinhold Heller and Frank C. Lewis perfectly summarise the impact and context of this haunting portrait: 'Frequently identified as one of the most striking and powerful images of Germany Expressionism and of twentieth-century graphics in general, Portrait of a Man is readily seen to be a self-portrait of Heckel. Created during the months after World War I ended, as Germany suffered extreme political unrest and uncertainty and as the defeated nation continued to feel the effects of a British blockade that prevented food supplies from reaching the hungering population, the extremely gaunt features of Heckel's face, his contemplative or melancholy pose with its sense of simultaneous expectation and resignation, appears as manifestations of an existential and physical malaise which was national as well as personal.' (Heller, p. 112)
The present impression is a beautiful example of this famous woodcut, printed by the artist by hand. The quite watery colours are applied loosely to the blocks, resulting in very painterly effects. The brushwork is clearly visible and the moisture of the coloured inks has led to a slight blurring of the black outlines. Some small areas of the colour blocks must have resisted the application of the colours, resulting in white patches on the forehead, in the ochre area at right and elsewhere. In later impressions, in particular those from the edition produced by the professional printer Fritz Voigt, these 'printing flaws' have been eradicated, and the colouration is solid and opaque. Yet it is these irregularities and imperfections which lend the print, in early impressions such as the present one, its immediacy and hand-made character, making each example essentially an unique object.
The exact date of the Männerbildnis is not known. In their catalogue raisonné, the Dubes state 1919 as the year of its creation, however a few early proof impressions are dated 1918, suggesting that Heckel conceived this self-portait immediately after his return from Flanders, where he had served for most of the war as a medical orderly.