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8 Ossip Zadkine The Russian-born sculptor Ossip Zadkine made his debut as an exhibiting sculptor at the Paris Autumn Salon in 1911. ‘Les trois grâces’ was created in 1926, by which time he already held a French passport. This group of three women is his earliest work in bronze; before that he had worked mainly in stone and wood. Among the particular- ities of Zadkine’s forms, which are rooted in the materials used, are convex-concave elements and the incised lines on the surface, which create subtle references to Cubist models. This bronze, the first of only five examples cast, was apparently important to Zadkine, for it remained in his possession for many years, probably until his death. Les trois soeurs ou les trois grâces ou les trois belles ou les trois amies. 1926. Cast in 1926. Bronze with dark brown patina. H 53 cm. Estimate: CHF 200 000/300 000 © 2021, ProLitteris, Zurich Odyssey of a Heckel Portrait Born in 1891, Milda Georgi adopted the stage name Sidi (or ‘Siddi’) Riha when she became a dancer. She married Erich Heckel in 1915, only a short time after he painted this portrait of her. While Heckel and Riha re- mained a couple until the end of his life in 1970, the painting underwent a decades-long odyssey that reflects German history. Painted in 1914, the portrait was created during a difficult period for Heckel, marked by the dissolution of the legendary artists’ group ‘Die Brücke’, of which he was a founding member, as well as by Siddi’s pro- longed illness. She was confined to her bed for a long period in the late summer of 1913. Heckel continued to produce art during this time, even holding his first solo exhibition at the Fritz Gurlitt Gallery in Berlin, but his personal crisis is reflected in the sombre palette he employed. The first owner of ‘Frau am Tisch’ (Woman at a table) was the Jewish entrepreneur, collector and patron Alfred Hess, who amassed an excel- lent collection of German Expressionist works, including ten by Heckel, before his death in 1931. In the summer of 1933, his widow Thekla Hess and her son Hans felt compelled to transfer nearly 100 works, including circa 60 paintings, to Switzerland. They were exhibited in Basel and Zu- rich, and so were kept out of reach for a time from the Nazi authorities. In March 1937, the portrait of Siddi and 69 other works were sent to the Cologne Kunstverein, where Ernst Ludwig Kirchner’s famous painting ‘Berlin Street Scene’ was already located. Later owned by Carl Hage- mann and then the state of Berlin, the Kirchner was restituted in 2006, subsequently selling for $38 million. Thekla Hess emigrated to England in 1938, and was able to save part of the collection by bringing it with her. The rest remained behind in Ger- many and was lost there. In a crate in Cologne, ‘Frau amTisch’, along with some other works, survived a bombing raid and later a flood, and final- ly ended up with the painter Peter Herkenrath – whether legally or not, however, remained unclear. In the 1970s, the painting, which had been considered lost, reappeared for the first time. Now it will be offered at auction in Zurich, its sale made possible as part of a fair settlement with the Hess heirs in accordance with the Washington Principles. Erich Heckel. Frau amTisch (Woman at a table). 1914. Oil on canvas. 64 × 38.5 cm. Estimate: CHF 300 000/500 000 © 2021, ProLitteris, Zurich