Lot 259 Dα

August Macke's thoroughly diverse oeuvre of drawings develops an extremely rich variety in terms of motifs, compositions and techniques. In 1911 it was his family, garden and street scenes from his immediate surroundings that occupied a dominant role in his work as an artist.
Formally the compact charcoal drawing “Straße mit Fuhrwerk” impressively demonstrates the influence of the Fauves - particularly by the work of Henri Matisse - on Macke's work. His 1899 painting “Rue à Arceuil” (now in Copenhagen's Statens Museum for Kunst) had already entered the collection of Bernhard Koehler, the uncle of August Macke's wife Elisabeth, before 1912 and displays virtually unmistakable similarities to the present drawing in terms of motif and composition (see Ursula Heiderich, August Macke, Zeichnungen Werkverzeichnis, Stuttgart 1993, pp. 39 ff.).
The drawing's motif is also closely related to a painting dating to the same year by the artist Hans Thuar, who was a friend of Macke. It depicts the view from Thuar's flat in Magdalenenstraße in Endenich, where he had lived since May of 1911 (see ibid., p. 320, and Ute Eggeling, Hans Thuar, 1887 - 1945: Ein rheinischer Expressionist, Recklinghausen 1984, pp. 28 f.). The obvious similarity in the view selected for both street scenes leads to the conclusion that they depict the same place - a plausible inference which has nevertheless been relativised through the recently discovered notation by August Macke's wife, Elisabeth Erdmann-Macke, on the reverse side of the sheet. Here the drawing is referred to as “Street from Kandern”. Macke and his family did in fact spend September of 1911 in Kandern where he created a whole series of sketches and charcoal drawings.