August Macke - Sandgrube - image-1

Lot 29 Dα

August Macke - Sandgrube

Auction 1233 - overview Cologne
01.12.2023, 18:00 - Evening Sale - Modern and Contemporary Art
Estimate: 60.000 € - 70.000 €
Result: 81.900 € (incl. premium)

August Macke

Sandgrube
1911

Watercolour and black crayon on watercolour laid paper. 24.4 x 33.3 cm. Framed under glass. Unsigned. - In fine condition with fresh colours.

In his 1911 watercolour “Sandgrube”, August Macke has used succinct forms and delicate tones to depict a landscape reshaped by human hand; occasional passages of hatching in black chalk accentuate the rough edges of the excavated area.
However, rather than a sandpit, it is more likely to be a quarry for clay, the raw material for the brickyard that can be recognised in the background. Around 1900 two brickyards began operating in the southwestern part of Bonn: the Lengsdorfer Ringofenziegelei and the Ziegelei Brenig in Friesdorf.
Both Macke and his close friend Hans Thuar recognised these factories as formally interesting motifs and depicted them in multiple works – in addition to the picture presented here, examples include Macke’s watercolour “Fabrik (Ziegelei)” from 1912 (Heiderich Aquarelle 176) and his painting “Landschaft mit Fabrik” from 1913 (Heiderich Gemälde 462) as well as Thuar’s painting “Ziegelei” from 1912 (Eggeling 35). The artist may have been particularly drawn to the interlocking of horizontally and vertically oriented forms as well as the stark contrast between the modern industrial facilities in the foreground and the gently extending horizon line of the hills of the Siebengebirge behind them.

Catalogue Raisonné

Heiderich Aquarelle 90

Provenance

Private ownership 1957; Stuttgarter Kunstkabinett Roman Norbert Ketterer, Stuttgart, 21/22 Nov. 1958, lot 611; Galerie Thole Rotermund, Hamburg, acquired there in 2005; private ownership, Bavaria

Exhibitions

Dresden 1913 (Galerie Ernst Arnold), August Macke; Hanover 1935 (Kestner-Gesellschaft), August Macke, cat. no. 68; Basel 1936 (Kunsthalle Basel), Paula Modersohn-Becker - August Macke, not in catalogue; Hamburg 1946 (Galerie Kristeller), August Macke - Aquarelle, Zeichnungen, cat. no. 39; Bielefeld 1957 (Städtisches Kunsthaus), August Macke, Aquarell-Ausstellung, cat. no. 69, ill. p.15