Lot 32 Dα

August Macke’s ink drawing “Auf der Promenade” has been exhibited many times and is among the most outstanding drawings of his late work. The picture’s prominent subject matter, its precise spatial composition and the graphic clarity of its black and white instil the work with a quality equal to that of Macke’s paintings or watercolours.
Within the motif of the promenade the artist has translated the theme of the city. The figures bustle along the street or sit and read on a bench. Macke draws the present, images of the everyday and now more modern middle-class life in which people appear less in the form of individuals than as faceless figures. Thus the present work simultaneously conveys a new society and a new understanding of art.
August Macke further developed the theme of the promenade in “Hutladen an der Promenade” (Heiderich Aquarelle 397). In this watercolour from 1914, which is now in the collection of the Museum Ludwig in Cologne, he has expanded the composition on the right side to include a few figures looking into a milliner’s shop. While the wide horizontal format of the watercolour conveys a panorama-like scene, the exceptionally large ink drawing is compelling on account of its compact composition and masterful staging of layers of depth in space.