Der Narr [The Fool], from Bauhaus Drucke: Neue Europäeische Graphik, 5te Mappe: Deutsche Kuenstler [Bauhaus Prints: New European Graphics, 5th Portfolio: German Artists]

This print was created when the artist was working as a hospital orderly with German forces at Ostende, Belgium, in 1917. What began as a portrait of Wolf the hospital attendant, became a jester when Heckel enlarged the size of the sitter’s buttons, creating the appearance of a clown’s costume. Clowns, jesters, and acrobats appear often in Heckel’s art as existentially tragic and despairing figures, often serving as metaphors for the artist-poet.