August Macke

Dr Kaesbach, Düsseldorf
Private Collection, Switzerland (acquired in 1933)
Gustaaf Ennik, Zurich (acquired from the above)
Acquired from the above by the family of the present owner in January 1995

Lothar Erdmann (ed.), August Macke, Zeichnungen, Bonn, 1919, fig. 10, illustrated
Ursula Heiderich, August Macke, Zeichnungen, Werkverzeichnis, Stuttgart, 1993, no. 2431, illustrated p. 629

Executed on white wove paper, not laid down, hinged on the reverse of the top two corners, floating in the mount. This work is in very good original condition. Colours: Overall fairly accurate in the printed catalogue illustration, although the charcoal is slightly stronger in the original.
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Spielende Mädchen unter Bäumen belongs to a series of Macke's mature drawings, executed in 1914, shortly before his tragic early death in September that year. Macke's favourite theme that he explored during his final weeks was people walking on city streets or in parks. Unlike other Expressionists such as Kirchner, Macke's representations of the city have a softer tone. His depictions of figures in parks, zoos and waterside promenades evoke a world of modern paradise, in which people appear to be at ease with their environment. As Wieland Schmied commented: 'August Macke was much more of a wanderer than Ernst Ludwig Kirchner and he walked through the streets of the city as if it were another form of nature. At first the city was nothing more than a nature 'tamed'. He was especially interested in the vegetation, the parks, the zoo with its zebras, herons and parrots... August Macke always presents domesticated nature, the town is permeated by nature, reconciled with her, with an abundance of open spaces and bordered by parks' (W. Schmied, German Art in the 20th Century (exhibition catalogue), Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1985, p. 36).

Fig. 1, August Macke, Vier Mädchen, 1913, oil on canvas, Städtische Galerie, Düsseldorf