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Artist or Maker: 1887-1914
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Medium: watercolour and brush and ink on paper
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Dimensions: 54 by 35cm.
21 1/4 by 13 3/4in.
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Provenance: Hanna Bekker vom Rath, Frankfurt am Main
Galerie Grosshennig, Dusseldorf
Dr Kurt Herberts, Wuppertal (1957)
Sale: Villa Grisebach, Berlin, 26th November 1993, lot 19
Purchased at the above sale by the present owner
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Exhibited: Bielefeld, Städtisches Kunsthaus, Macke, Aquarell-Ausstellung, 1957, no. 281, illustrated in the catalogue
Munster, Westfälisches Landesmuseum für Kunst and Kulturgeschichte; Bonn, Städtisches Kunstmuseum and Krefeld, Kaiser-Wilhelm-Museum, August Macke 1887-1914, Aquarelle und Zeichnungen, 1976-77, no. 145
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Literature: Gustav Vriesen, August Macke, Stuttgart, 1957, p. 287, no. 281, illustrated
Weltkunst, vol. 22, 15th November 1993, p. 3204, illustrated in colour
Ursula Heiderich, August Macke, Aquarelle, Wekrverzeichnis, Stuttgart, 1997, p. 287, no. 322, illustrated
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Notes: In 1913 and 1914 Macke executed a number of paintings and watercolours depicting people walking on the street or at leisurly activities in the park. His elongated figures in fashionable clothes are rendered in soft tones, and appear to be at ease with their environment. Writing about Macke's park and city scenes, Wieland Schmied commented: "August Macke was much more of a wanderer than Ernst Ludwig Kirchner and he walked through the streets of the city as if it were another form of nature. At first the city was nothing more than a nature 'tamed'. He was especially interested in the vegetation, the parks, the zoo with its zebras, herons and parrots... August Macke always presents domesticted nature, the town is permeated by nature, reconciled with her, with an abundance of open spaces and bordered by parks" (W. Schmied, German Art of the 20th Century (exhibition catalogue), The Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1985, p. 36). The soft, yet vibrant palette of the present work reflects the artist's interest in rendering colour and light through the transparent quality of watercolour, a technique he would further develop during his celebrated trip to Tunis in the following spring.
Fig. 1, August Macke, Paar am Gartentisch, 1914, oil on canvas, Private Collection
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