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Frauen vor dem Sultan
Komposition (Drei weibliche Akte)
Baum am Hang
Garten der Taubstummenanstalt (Paris)
Vogel in Blumen (Entwurf für eine Stickerei, aus einem Skizzenbuch)
Mädchen im Wald, verso: Mädchen am Brunnen
Schmetterlinge VIII (Entwurf für ein Plakat der

August Macke

Frauen vor dem Sultan

1912

4 3/4 x 8 inches (12 x 20 cm)


August Macke

Komposition (Drei weibliche Akte)



4 5/8 x 3 3/8 inches (11,8 x 8,7 cm)


August Macke

Baum am Hang

1909
Pencil on paper
4 1/2 x 3 1/4 inches (11,3 x 8,4 cm)


August Macke

Garten der Taubstummenanstalt (Paris)

1909
Pencil on paper
7 1/8 x 6 inches (18,2 x 14,9 cm)


August Macke

Vogel in Blumen (Entwurf für eine Stickerei, aus einem Skizzenbuch)

1914

5 x 3 1/4 inches (12,4 x 8,3 cm)


August Macke

Mädchen im Wald, verso: Mädchen am Brunnen

1914

3 5/8 x 5 5/8 inches (9,3 x 14,2 cm)


August Macke

Schmetterlinge VIII (Entwurf für ein Plakat der "Ausstellung Bonner Künstler")

1911
Gouache and pen and ink on yellow glossy paper, with glued-on blue glossy paper
9 1/2 x 5 1/2 inches (24,2 x 14,1 cm)


Macke, the sketcher, finds beautiful and interesting things everywhere, especially in nature. For him, the visible world in all its diversity is an inexhaustible ‘dictionary’ that he never tires of exploring. Although he often studies his motifs in detail from the original, his drawings are only superficially concerned with observing nature. He captures what he sees, reduces it to its essential form and, as in our example, gives two butterflies and an arrangement of flowers a marvellous touch. The ornamental rendition and the harmonious sound of bright shades of blue and red symbolise his dream of a perfect unity between man and nature.

Our beautiful work is a speciality, namely one of nine collages on glossy paper. These are part of a total of around 44 poster designs, including coloured drawings and studies in the sketchbooks. These graphic designs, which Macke calls ‘Butterflies’ among other things, were intended for a poster competition for the ‘Exhibition of Bonn Artists’ at the Obernier Museum in Bonn in spring 1911.
The Obernier Museum, which initially emerged from a private foundation and opened in 1905, was a meeting place for Bonn's intellectual and artistic scene at the time and the only venue for exhibitions of contemporary art in Bonn. The publisher Walter Cohen (1880-1942), who was on the board of directors of the Obernier Museum, recommended Macke for the museum's poster competition; in the end, however, his six submitted designs were not accepted by the jury and therefore the artist did not want them to be exhibited

Über August Macke

Born: 1887 in Meschede
Died: 1914 in Perthes-lès-Hurlus

Born on 3 January 1887 in Meschede, the Netherlands, August Macke grew up in Bonn and Cologne. At the age of 17 he begins his studies at the Academy of Arts and the School of Arts and Crafts in Düsseldorf. In 1907 Macke travels to Paris, where he sees the painting of the Impressionists, which fascinates and influences him. Back in the Empire he goes to Berlin and attends Lovis Corinth's painting school for a short time. After doing a year's voluntary military service in 1908, the artist marries Elisabeth Gerhardt. In 1909 he met Franz Marc in Tegernsee, with whom he would share a lifelong friendship as an artist. With their colour-intensive, two-dimensional forms, Macke's works from this period clearly show the influence of Matisse's and Marc's painting. In 1911 Macke joined Kandinsky and Marc, who in the same year organised exhibitions under the name "Der Blaue Reiter" (The Blue Rider) and published the almanac of the same name. On another trip to Paris with Marc, he met Robert Delaunay, who in turn visited him later in Bonn in the company of Guillaume Apollinaire. The artist came to terms with Apollinaire's Orphist painting style. The trip to Tunis with Paul Klee and Louis Moilliet in 1914 also contributed to the completion of his very personal style with its luminous, intense colours and crystalline forms. On 26 September 1914 Macke was killed on the Western Front in France at the age of 27.