August Macke (1887-1914)
This excellent catalogue, which contains German texts, accompanied an exhibition of ‘August Macke’s Watercolours’ at the Westfälisches Landesmuseum für Kunst und Kulturgeschichte Münster in 1997-98. The book includes 569 works, 125 being presented as full page colour plates, the remainder as 6.5cm x 5cm b/w figures.
The comprehensive German text by Ursula Heiderich is primarily an introductory essay, illustrated by 97 b/w figures, entitled ‘Macke’s Watercolours’. The catalogue is presented chronologically, from 1903-1914. There is a Concordance and an Addendum to the list of chronological works that adds an additional 70 watercolours. The catalogue ends with a detailed Bibliography and Indices of Names mentioned in the introductory essay and the catalogue. The final image is of a 1911 photograph of Macke, his wife, Elisabeth, and son, Walter.
At first, August Macke’s style was influenced by Impressionism but he later incorporated elements of Futurism, Fauvism and Cubism. Macke painted a series of works that show simplified forms and place the subject upon a grid of various pure colours to explore ways in which colour and composition interact. This is probably due to his encounter with Robert Delaunay and his Orphistic style. In 1914, Macke travelled to Tunis with Louis Moilliet and Paul Klee, a trip that had a major effect on the palette of Macke and Klee, and perhaps on Moilliet, who is little-remembered today. Today, the North African watercolours are amongst Macke’s most widely admired works, but there was no time left for Macke to develop these idea as, near Perthe-les-Hurlus in the Champagne, on September 26, 1914 he was killed.
The earliest watercolours are “Portrait Study of Elisabeth Gerhardt”, showing the artist’s wife, and “Lower Rhine Landscape”, “Sunset”, “Walk at Night” and “Willows”, all 1903. Other significant works showing the breadth of his approach to watercolour painting are “Greeting”, “Children at the Greengrocer’s”, “Walking in the Park”, “Walking under Trees”, “Under the Bower in Thun”, all 1913 [the Macke family lived in Hilterfingen on this lake], “Lady Reading in the Garden (at Lake Thun)”, 1914, “In the Bazaar” [a perfect examples of the artist’s concern for colour and form] “Market Life” and “The Artist’s Wife Reading”, all 1914. The reproduction on the front jacket cover is “Market in Tunis I”, 1914, which exemplifies the artist’s handling of colour and form during his North African trip.
Figurative works include “Sleeping on the Sofa”, “Fallen”, “Chinese Rider”, “Two Nudes with Pitcher” and “Lady on Red Stool”, all 1911, “Lying Female Nude”, “Standing Nude” and “Coffeehouse Terrace”, all 1912, “Figure in the Park”, 1913, and “Girl with Horse and Donkey”, “Shopseller with Pitchers” and “In the Temple”, all 1914. Still life works include “Still Life with Pipe and Apple”, 1911, “Vase with Bird II”, 1912, and “Green Bird”, 1913.
Landscapes predominate, for example: “Kreutzberg bei Berlin” and “Dorfstrasse in Kandern II”, both 1911, “Suburban Homes”, 1912, “Fashion Shop Window”, “Window”, and “At Lake Thun”, all 1913, “Sunset at the Lake”, “Pomegranate Tree and Palm in a Garden”, “At the Cemetery, Thun”, “By the Parrots”, “St Germain near Tunis”, “Country House Terrace in St Germain”, “The Patio of a Country House in St Germain”, “Landscape at Hammamet”, “Cairo I”, “View of an Alley”, “Market in Tunis”, “Sea Landscape”, “Bright House”, “Rocky Landscape”, “Canyon (Cliffs)”, “Landscape with Bright Trees” [one of the most vibrant works that I can remember], “Garden on Lake Murten”, “Vineyards at Lake Murten”, “Garden Entrance”, “Dorfstrasse” and “Flamingoes in the Zoo”, all 1914. Abstract works include “Coloured Forms 3c” and “Abstract Composition with Woman”, both 1913.
I would imagine that, for German readers, this comprehensive catalogue would be an essential complement to books and catalogues dealing with Macke’s paintings.
