Watercolor , India ink and charcoal. Titled by Elisabeth Erdmann-Macke on the reverse. On firm watercolor paper. 24.7 x 33.7 cm. , the full sheet.
This work presumably is number A 45 on the estate list. In Dr. Ursula Heiderich's catalogue raisonné, the estate list numbers of the CR numbers 336 and 337, as well as individual provenance and exhibition information, have been mixed up. The estate list number FT 41, which was incorrectly assigned to our cat. no. 336, presumably belonged to the Galerie von der Heyde, Berlin, until 1937 and later entered the collection of the Kupferstichkabinett (Museum of Prints and Drawings) of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin.

• Vibrant watercolor from the artist's most prolific creative period.
• In 1911, he was part of the close circle of the emerging “Blue Rider" group, wrote articles for the almanac, and participated in their exhibitions.
• After a stay in Paris in 1912 and the subsequent friendship with Robert Delaunay, Macke increasingly distanced himself from the art of the Blue Rider and developed an individual pictorial language.
• An excellent free and airy depiction, the brushwork reflecting the summery lightness of the scene.
• A comparable watercolor is in the Wallraf-Richartz-Museum, Cologne.
• The painting “Ausreitende Husaren” from the same year is in the Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid.
LITERATURE: Ursula Heiderich, August Macke, Aquarelle. Catalogue raisonné, Ostfildern 1997, pp. 30 and 290, cat. no. 336 (illustrated in b/w on p. 291). Gustav Vriesen, August Macke, Bielefeld 1957, cat. rais. no. A 323 (illustrated in b/w on p. 290, illustration erroneously assigned to cat. rais. no. 322). - - August Macke 1887-1914. Aquarell-Ausstellung, exhib. cat. Städtisches Kunsthaus, Bielefeld, June 23 - July 21, 1957, p. 40 (illustrated, not exhibited). Galerie Wolfgang Ketterer, 12th auction, 19th and 20th Century, November 26, 1974, lot 1115 (with full-page color illustration on p. 169). J. M. McCullagh, August Macke and the Vision of Paradise: An Iconographic Analysis, (Diss.) Austin 1980, pp. 95-97 and 220 (illustrated on p. 70). Christie's, London, 7407th auction, Impressionist and Modern Works on Paper, June 19, 2007, lot 197 (with color ill., with the note “Property from a German Private Collection”).

Das Junge Rheinland, Kunstverein Cologne, January 15 until mid February 1918

The artist's estate (estate number A 45). Heinrich Stinnes Collection (1867-1932), Cologne (acquired in 1918, exhibition “Junges Rheinland”, Kunstverein Cologne). Heinrich Stinnes estate, Mülheim a. d. Ruhr (inherited from the above). Private collection, Düsseldorf (acquired from the above in 1974: Ketterer). Galerie Beck & Eggeling International Fine Art, Düsseldorf (acquired in 2007). Private collection, Southern Germany (acquired from the above). Family-owned ever since

At the request of Franz Marc, August Macke became involved in the editorial work for the almanac of "The Blue Rider" in 1911, and, together with the artists Wassily Kandinsky, Franz Marc, Gabriele Münter, Alexej von Jawlensky and Marianne von Werefkin, he exhibited in a first joint exhibition at the Galerie Thannhauser and in the group's second exhibition at the Galerie Goltz in Munich the following year. During this same period, Macke increasingly began to pursue his artistic path and broke away from his fellow artists' ideas. The once so evident influence of Kandinsky now receded: “My views on art differ from Kandinsky and Marc. I feel solely responsible for myself now” (August Macke in a letter to Bernhard Koehler, October 16, 1913, quoted from: Gustav Vriesen, August Macke, Stuttgart 1953, p. 120) In 1913, Macke even mocked the “Blue Rider” by painting a “Persiflage auf den Blauen Reiter” (Mockery of the Blue Rider, Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Munich). This “increasingly independent development” also manifests itself in Macke's watercolors, wrote Ursula Heiderich, author of the catalogue raisonné, about the year the present watercolor was created (August Macke. Aquarelle, Ostfildern-Ruit 1997, p. 30). “Alongside the open works, which reveal the texture of the paper, there are intricately interwoven fabrics made of bright splotches of color, in which Macke can completely dispense with the contour.” (ibid.) Macke's interest in Fauvism, particularly the paintings of Henri Matisse (see “Collioure,” 1905, Museum of Modern Art, New York), is evident in the brightly colored and loosely stippled watercolor technique. Macke developed an interest in the intense colors and the vividness of the representation, the dynamism in a picture (see Elisabeth Erdmann-Macke in retrospect, in: Erinnerungen an August Macke, Stuttgart 1962, pp. 283f.). In the present work, he successfully implemented both elements with an airy, staccato-like application of color. At the same time, he gave the scene, which was probably inspired by the regular riding trips he took with his brother-in-law at the time, a fairytale-like and paradisiacal quality: entirely in keeping with the idea of paradise that was his prevailing leitmotif during this creative period. In August of the following year, Macke was drafted for military service. He was killed just seven weeks later in the Champagne region at the young age of only 27. [CH]

A dynamic representation in fresh colors and in very good condition. The upper corners of the sheet have tiny pinholes, probably from the manufacturing process. The upper right edge of the sheet has a tiny incision (approx. 0.5 cm).