Coloured pencil, watercolour and pencil on perforated sketchbook page 16 x 9.4 cm, framed under glass. Verso, on the supporting card, with estate stamp (Lugt 1775 b) and handwritten inscription "August Macke Legende". - Colours still fresh. Verso corners firmly mounted to supporting card.
Heiderich drawings 1981; estate lists no. FST 35
According to Heiderich, it is very likely that the present work is "a sheet from sketchbook no. 60, which was used in Hilterfingen between October 1913 and May 1914, partially towards the end of his stay. For the motif and style of the composition Macke was possibly inspired by Marc's tempera work of 'Saint Julian' from 1913, now in the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York. The theme is based on Flaubert's novel 'La légende de saint Julien l'hospitalier', published in 1877." (Ursula Heiderich, August Macke. Zeichnungen. Werkverzeichnis, Stuttgart, 1993, p. 552).
Catalogue Raisonné
Heiderich Zeichnungen 1981
Provenance
Lempertz, Cologne, auction 544, 14 May 1975, lot 461; private possession
Literature
Ursula Heiderich, August Macke. Die Skizzenbücher, 2 volumes, Stuttgart 1987, vol. 2, p. 1057
Exhibitions
Frankfurt/Wiesbaden 1920 (Kunstverein Frankfurt/Neues Museum, Nassauischer Kunstverein/Wiesbadener Gesellschaft für bildende Kunst), Gedächtnis-Ausstellung August Macke, cat. no. 57