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Dimensions: measurements 65 by 47cm. alternate measurements 25 5/8 by 18 1/2 in.

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Provenance: Dr Hubert Zink, Bonn (acquired by 1918 and until at least 1953)
Sale: Kunsthaus Lempertz, Cologne, 5th June 1982, lot 385
Frank Jaegger, Munich
Private Collection, USA (acquired from the above in 1985. Sold: Sotheby's, London, 3rd February 2004, lot 16)
Purchased at the above sale by the present owner

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Exhibited:

Dresden, Galerie Ernst Arnold, August Macke, 1913
Cologne, Kölnischer Kunstverein, Das junge Rheinland, 1918 (titled Blumen vor dem Fenster)
Hannover, Kestner-Gesellschaft, XVI. Sonderausstellung August Macke - Heinrich Nauen, 1918, no. 17
Bonn, Gesellschaft für Literatur und Kunst, Städtisches Museum Villa Obernier, August Macke, 1918 (titled Blumen vor dem Fenster)

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Literature: Gustav Vriesen, August Macke, Stuttgart, 1953, no. 365
Gustav Vriesen, August Macke, Stuttgart, 1957, no. 365a, illustrated p. 328
Martina Ewers-Schultz, Die französischen Grundlagen des 'Rheinischen Expressionismus' 1905 bis 1914, Münster, 1996, illustrated p. 242
August Macke (exhibition catalogue), August Macke Haus, Bonn, 2003, illustrated p. 136
Ursula Heiderich, August Macke, Gemälde, Werkverzeichnis, Ostfildern, 2008, no. 459, illustrated p. 455

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Notes: Macke was one of the first members of the Blaue Reiter group to recognise the importance of post-Impressionist art, and to adapt the colour-theories of the French avant-garde artists to his own style. He first visited Paris in 1907, and in 1909 he saw the works of the Fauve artists whose bold use of vibrant colours had a strong impact on Macke. Of particular importance was the work of Robert Delaunay, whom he met during his last trip to Paris in 1912. In the present work, the influence of Delaunay's Orphism is visible mainly in the top half of the composition, in which a view through the window is rendered in brightly coloured, overlapping geometric forms. Macke makes no attempt to give an illusion of depth and perspective. Instead, the vase of flowers appears to be floating against the geometrically composed background, emphasising the artist's interest in pure colour and form.