August Robert Ludwig Macke (3 January 1887 – 26 September 1914) was a German Expressionist painter. He was one of the leading members of the German

Expressionist Expressionism is a modernist movement, initially in poetry and painting, originating in Northern Europe around the beginning of the 20th century. Its typical trait is to present the world solely from a subjective perspective, distorting it rad ...

group

Der Blaue Reiter ''Der Blaue Reiter'' (The Blue Rider) is a designation by Wassily Kandinsky and Franz Marc for their exhibition and publication activities, in which both artists acted as sole editors in the almanac of the same name, first published in mid-May ...

(The Blue Rider). He lived during a particularly active time for German art: he saw the development of the main German Expressionist movements as well as the arrival of the successive avant-garde movements which were forming in the rest of Europe. As an artist of his time, Macke knew how to integrate into his painting the elements of the avant-garde which most interested him. Like his friend Franz Marc and Otto Soltau, he was one of the young German artists who died in the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

Early life

August Robert Ludwig Macke was born in Germany on 3 January 1887, in

Meschede Meschede () is a town in the Hochsauerland district, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is the capital of the district Hochsauerlandkreis. Education One of the five branches of South Westphalia University of Applied Sciences (also: Fachh ...

Westphalia Westphalia (; german: Westfalen ; nds, Westfalen ) is a region of northwestern Germany and one of the three historic parts of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It has an area of and 7.9 million inhabitants. The territory of the regio ...

. He was the only son of August Friedrich Hermann Macke (1845–1904), a building contractor and amateur artist, and his wife, Maria Florentine, née Adolph, (1848–1922), who came from a farming family in Westphalia's Sauerland region. Shortly after August's birth the family settled at Cologne, where Macke was educated at the Kreuzgymnasium (1897-1900) and became a friend of Hans Thuar, who also became an artist. In 1900, when he was thirteen, the family moved to Bonn, where Macke studied at the Realgymnasium and became a friend of Walter Gerhardt and Gerhardt's sister, Elisabeth, whom he married a few years later. The first artistic works to make an impression on the boy were his father's drawings, the Japanese prints collected by his friend Thuar's father and the works of Arnold Böcklin which he saw on a visit to Basel in 1900. In 1904 Macke's father died, and in that year Macke enrolled at the

Kunstakademie Düsseldorf The Kunstakademie Düsseldorf is the academy of fine arts of the state of North Rhine Westphalia at the city of Düsseldorf, Germany. Notable artists who studied or taught at the academy include Joseph Beuys, Gerhard Richter, Magdalena Jetelová ...

, under Adolf Maennchen (1904-1906). During this period he also took evening classes under Fritz Helmut Ehmke (1905), did some work as a stage and costume designer at the Schauspielhaus Düsseldorf, and visited northern Italy (1905) and Netherlands, Belgium and Britain (1906).

Artistic career 1907–1914

August Macke, 1912, Rokoko, oil on canvas, 89 x 89 cm, National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design, Norway

Thereafter Macke lived most of his creative life in

Bonn The federal city of Bonn ( lat, Bonna) is a city on the banks of the Rhine in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, with a population of over 300,000. About south-southeast of Cologne, Bonn is in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ru ...

, with the exception of a few periods spent at

Lake Thun Lake Thun (german: Thunersee) is an Alpine lake in the Bernese Oberland in Switzerland named after the city of Thun, on its northern shore. At in surface area, it is the largest Swiss lake entirely within a single canton. The lake was created af ...

in Switzerland and various trips to Paris, Italy, the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

and

Tunisia ) , image_map = Tunisia location (orthographic projection).svg , map_caption = Location of Tunisia in northern Africa , image_map2 = , capital = Tunis , largest_city = capital , ...

. In Paris, where he traveled for the first time in 1907, Macke saw the work of the

Impressionists Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement characterized by relatively small, thin, yet visible brush strokes, open Composition (visual arts), composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities (often accentuating ...

, and shortly after he went to Berlin and spent a few months in

Lovis Corinth Lovis Corinth (21 July 1858 – 17 July 1925) was a German artist and writer whose mature work as a painter and printmaker realized a synthesis of impressionism and expressionism. Corinth studied in Paris and Munich, joined the Berlin Sec ...

's studio. His style was formed within the mode of French Impressionism and

Post-impressionism Post-Impressionism (also spelled Postimpressionism) was a predominantly French art movement that developed roughly between 1886 and 1905, from the last Impressionist exhibition to the birth of Fauvism. Post-Impressionism emerged as a reaction a ...

and later went through a Fauve period. In 1909 he married Elisabeth Gerhardt. In 1910, through his friendship with Franz Marc, Macke met

Kandinsky Wassily Wassilyevich Kandinsky (; rus, Василий Васильевич Кандинский, Vasiliy Vasilyevich Kandinskiy, vɐˈsʲilʲɪj vɐˈsʲilʲjɪvʲɪtɕ kɐnʲˈdʲinskʲɪj; – 13 December 1944) was a Russian painter a ...

and for a while shared the non-objective aesthetic and the mystical and symbolic interests of

. Macke's meeting with

Robert Delaunay Robert Delaunay (12 April 1885 – 25 October 1941) was a French artist who, with his wife Sonia Delaunay and others, co-founded the Orphism art movement, noted for its use of strong colours and geometric shapes. His later works were more abstra ...

in Paris in 1912 was to be a sort of revelation for him. Delaunay's chromatic Cubism, which Apollinaire had called Orphism, influenced Macke's art from that point onwards. His ''Shops Windows'' can be considered a personal interpretation of Delaunay's ''Windows,'' combined with the simultaneity of images found in Italian Futurism. The exotic atmosphere of Tunisia, where Macke traveled in April 1914 with

Paul Klee Paul Klee (; 18 December 1879 – 29 June 1940) was a Swiss-born German artist. His highly individual style was influenced by movements in art that included expressionism, cubism, and surrealism. Klee was a natural draftsman who experimented ...

and Louis Moilliet was fundamental for the creation of the luminist approach of his final period, during which he produced a series of works now considered masterpieces. August Macke's oeuvre can be considered as Expressionism (in its original German flourishing between 1905 and 1925), and also as part of Fauvism. The paintings concentrate primarily on expressing feelings and moods rather than reproducing objective reality, usually distorting colour and form. Macke's career was cut short by his early death in the second month of the First World War at the front in

Champagne, France Champagne () was a province in the northeast of the Kingdom of France, now best known as the Champagne wine region for the sparkling white wine that bears its name in modern-day France. The County of Champagne, descended from the early medie ...

, on 26 September 1914. His final painting, '' Farewell'', depicts the mood of gloom that settled after the outbreak of war. This was also the same year that he painted the famous painting ''Türkisches Café in München'' (1914).

Selected paintings

File:August Macke 036.jpg, ''The artist's wife in blue hat'', 1909 File:Macke - Staudacherhaus am Tegernsee.jpg, ''Staudacher's house at the Tegernsee'', 1910 File:1910 Macke Tegernsee Landschaft anagoria.JPG, Tegernsee landscape, 1910,

Germanisches Nationalmuseum The Germanisches National Museum is a museum in Nuremberg, Germany. Founded in 1852, it houses a large collection of items relating to German culture and art extending from prehistoric times through to the present day. The Germanisches National ...

File:Macke - Landschaft am Teggernsee mit lesendem Mann.jpg, ''Landschaft am Tegernsee mit lesendem Mann'', 1910 File:August Macke 030.jpg, ''St. Mary's with houses and chimney (Bonn),'' 1911,

Kunstmuseum Bonn The Kunstmuseum Bonn or Bonn Museum of Modern Art is an art museum in Bonn, Germany, founded in 1947. The Kunstmuseum exhibits both temporary exhibitions and its collection. Its collection is focused on Rhenish Expressionism and post-war German ...

File:August Macke 014.jpg, ''Vegetable fields,'' 1911,

Museum Ludwig Museum Ludwig, located in Cologne, Germany, houses a collection of modern art. It includes works from Pop Art, Abstract and Surrealism, and has one of the largest Picasso collections in Europe. It holds many works by Andy Warhol and Roy ...

Cologne Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 million inhabitants in the city proper and 3.6 millio ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

File:1912 Macke Walterchens Spielsachen anagoria.JPG, Little Walter's Toys, 1912, Städel 1913 Macke Zwei Mädchen anagoria.JPG, Two girls, 1913, Städelsches Kunstinstitut File:August Macke - Leute am blauen See.jpg, ''Leute am blauen See'', 1913 File:Macke, August - Promenade - Google Art Project.jpg, ''

Promenade An esplanade or promenade is a long, open, level area, usually next to a river or large body of water, where people may walk. The historical definition of ''esplanade'' was a large, open, level area outside fortress or city walls to provide cl ...

'', 1913 File:August Macke 005.jpg, ''Lady in a Green Jacket,'' 1913,

File:August Macke 004.jpg, ''View into a lane,'' 1914, watercolor File:August Macke 023.jpg, ''Kairouan (III)'', 1914,

watercolor Watercolor (American English) or watercolour (British English; see spelling differences), also ''aquarelle'' (; from Italian diminutive of Latin ''aqua'' "water"), is a painting method”Watercolor may be as old as art itself, going back to ...

, Westphalian State Museum for Art and Cultural History,

Münster Münster (; nds, Mönster) is an independent city (''Kreisfreie Stadt'') in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is in the northern part of the state and is considered to be the cultural centre of the Westphalia region. It is also a state di ...

File:Macke Hutladen III.jpg, ''Hutladen III'', 1914 File:Macke - Rotes Haus im Park.jpg, ''Red house in the park'', 1914 File:August Macke - Bernhard Koehler.jpg, ''Portrait of Bernhard Koehler'', 1910, Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus,

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Ha ...

File:August Macke 051.jpg, ''Turkish Café'', 1914, Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus,

File:August Macke - Indianer auf Pferden.jpg, '' Indians on Horseback'', 1911, Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus,

August Macke Prize

The

August Macke Prize The August Macke Prize, named after the painter August Macke, was given the first time in 1959 by the districts Arnsberg, Brilon, Meschede and Olpe in the region of the Hochsauerland, Germany. With the award the recipients get the offer to show t ...

, was given the first time in 1959 by the districts Arnsberg, Brilon, Olpe and

, town of birth of August Macke in

August-Macke-Haus

The August-Macke-Haus is a museum dedicated to August Macke founded in 1991. It is located in Macke's former home in

, where he lived from 1911 to 1914.

Art market

At a 1997 Christie's auction, Macke's ''The Couple at a Garden Table'' (1914) was sold for £2 million. ''Market in Tunis'' (1914) sold for £2.86 million ($4.1 million) in 2000. Consigned by the estate of

Ernst Beyeler Ernst Beyeler (16 July 1921 – 25 February 2010) was a Swiss art dealer and collector, who became "Europe’s pre-eminent dealer in modern art", according to ''The New York Times'', and "the greatest art dealer since the war", according to ''Th ...

, the artist's ''In the Bazar'' (1914) was auctioned for £3.96 million – then four and a half times the high estimate – at Christie's in 2011.

References

External links

Robert Delaunay, letter to August Macke, 1912
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Macke, August 1887 births 1914 deaths 20th-century German painters 20th-century German male artists German Expressionist painters German male painters German military personnel killed in World War I Orientalist painters People from Meschede People from the Province of Westphalia German Army personnel of World War I