Lot 213 Dα

With the drawing “Am Thuner See”, August Macke allows us to share the view he enjoyed almost every day in the garden of the “Rose Garden House”. In autumn of 1913 he moved from Bonn to Hilterfingen with his wife Elisabeth and their two children, and they rented a house directly next to Thun Lake. “August very quickly began painting diligently”, reports Elisabeth Macke in the memoirs she wrote about her husband. “He obtained painting materials for himself and created one picture after another in these radiant autumn weeks, which were warm as summer.” (Elisabeth Erdmann-Macke, Erinnerungen an August Macke, Frankfurt a. M. 1987, p. 283).
The artist also created the charcoal drawing “Am Thuner See” during this period, which was an exceptionally happy and fulfilling one for him. In a composition that is typical of his work and incorporates the character of Cubism, Macke presents us with an image of the view from the house into the garden and - seen between the trees - to the lake and the Stockhorn range lying behind it, including Mount Niesen, whose distinctive form resembles a prominent cone or a kind of pyramid. Beginning with the garden in the foreground and the landscape stretching into the distance, the visual structure of the charcoal drawing is - in keeping with the concept of Cubism - picturesquely condensed without concern for details and piled up on top of itself almost in a single plane, while a layering in depth nonetheless remains for the viewer in the strong contrasts between sharp contours and gentle modulations of grey, exquisitely and unconventionally developing a representation of nature with light and shadow.