August Macke - An der Aare - image-1
August Macke - An der Aare - image-2
August Macke - An der Aare - image-1August Macke - An der Aare - image-2

Lot 210 Dα

August Macke - An der Aare

Auction 1043 - overview Cologne
28.11.2014, 18:00 - Modern Art
Estimate: 30.000 € - 40.000 €
Result: 65.000 € (incl. premium)

August Macke

An der Aare
1913

Pencil drawing on sketchbook paper 17.3 x 10.9 cm With estate stamp to the reverse, therein the estate number “BZ 4/18” and titled and dated “An der Aare 1913” in ink. With an additional estate stamp to the the card support, inscribed in pencil with the estate number as well as annotated, dated and titled. - Slightly browned in mat opening.

From the beginning of October in 1913 to the end of May in 1914, August Macke and his family lived in Hilterfingen, Switzerland, on the banks of Lake Thun, where he experienced an extremely fertile phase in his art. Fascinated by the beauty of the landscape, he initially converted his new sensory impressions into graphic works. People walking, leisurely strolling past display windows or through park-like landscapes, were among his favourite subjects in this context.
The present drawing shows an elegantly dressed couple strolling along the banks of the Aare, the river which flows through Lake Thun. It has been executed in powerfully drawn lines; the clearly established contours and the hatching which forms shapes display a marked confidence and maturity. Here Macke has exploited to the fullest the possibilities offered by the medium of the pencil in order to transform his motif into highly nuanced shades of grey. At the same time, the wide and soft lines of the pencil stand in contrast to the severe formal idiom, dominated by sharply angled triangular and trapezoidal shapes. The composition thus exhibits an almost crystalline solidity and tension, and - as is characteristic of this period in his work - it unites the representational motif with formalist and semi-abstract forms of depiction. “Macke's drawing style as well as his use of watercolors had already matured greatly before the Tunis trip. He produced masterful drawings while at Lake Thun […] Approaches that are in fact opposites, namely the pictorial representation of real scenes and compositions that are the product of imagination, were now harmoniously united. For Macke, abstraction and the objective never seemed incompatible. Both forms of expression initially existed side by side in his Hilterfingen sketchbooks [...]” (Ursula Heiderich, in: August Macke and Switzerland, exhib. cat. Kunstmuseum Thun/August Macke Haus Bonn 2013, p. 29 f.).

Catalogue Raisonné

Heiderich 2303

Provenance

Stuttgarter Kunstkabinett Roman Norbert Ketterer, Stuttgart 10-12 May 1950, lot 1657, without illus. ("Paar am Fluß (An der Aare)"); since then private collection, South Germany