August Macke:
Picture "Apple Harvest" (1913) (Unique piece)
Proportional view
Picture "Apple Harvest" (1913) (Unique piece)
August Macke:
Picture "Apple Harvest" (1913) (Unique piece)

Quick info

unique piece | stamped | inscribed | pencil on wove paper | framed | size 38 x 31 cm

Product no. IN-951666.R1
Picture "Apple Harvest" (1913) (Unique piece)
August Macke: Picture "Apple Harvest" (1913) (Unique piece)

Detailed description

Picture "Apple Harvest" (1913) (Unique piece)

August Macke's drawing "Apple Harvest" from 1913 is an impressive example of his unique combination of light and form. As part of the expressionist movement and strongly influenced by the artist group "Der Blaue Reiter," this work showcases Macke’s ability to infuse everyday scenes with special depth and emotion. The drawing depicts a rural scene with women harvesting apples. This idyllic portrayal of life touches upon one of Macke's central themes: the harmonious coexistence of humans and nature. The scene, despite its everyday context, appears almost poetic - as if the artist were trying to capture the beauty of the moment.
In his typical manner, Macke uses clear shapes and simple lines to represent both the figures and nature. The figures are not elaborated in detail but stylised, reflecting Macke's interest in simplifying forms and reducing details. This reduction lends the drawing a timeless, almost abstract quality.

Pencil on wove paper, 1913, with the estate stamp August Macke (Lugt 1775b) and the number "BZ 25/3" on the verso. Catalogue raisonné Heiderich 1864 (with illus. p. 525). Motif size/sheet size 15.9 x 9.8 cm. Size in frame 38 x 31 cm as shown.

Producer: ARTES Kunsthandelsgesellschaft mbH, Bödekerstraße 13, 30161 Hannover, Deutschland E-Mail: info@kunsthaus-artes.de

Portrait of the artist August Macke

About August Macke

1887-1914

Radiant yellow, bright red, strong blue: the intensity and unique luminosity of the colours are typical of August Macke's work. In his paintings, Macke shows an intact world and primarily focuses on people. Probably because of the influence of his origins and the Rhenish cheerfulness, both as a person and as a painter, August Macke is considered to be one of the most famous German painters of the 20th-century.

Macke was a member of the artists' association "Blauer Reiter" and the most important representative of Rhenish Expressionism. He is considered the greatest German colour talent of his generation. But his drawings, sketches and designs also prove that he is one of the great artists of the 20th-century.

August Macke, born in Meschede on 3 January 1887, began his studies at the Kunstgewerbeschule and Kunstakademie Düsseldorf but dropped out prematurely. On journeys to France, Italy and the Netherlands he studied mainly Impressionism. With the artists of the "Blaue Reiter", whom he had known since 1911, he exhibited several times and contributed to the eponymous almanack. His financial security was assured by his sponsor Bernhard Koehler, an uncle of his wife Elisabeth.

Macke had already found his style of unmistakable independence. Inspired by Cézanne's tectonic pictorial structure and Matisse's flatness, he combined analytical Cubism with the pure colourfulness of Fauvism. The prismatic colours were the principal elements with which August Macke composed his painting. In doing so, the artist used the colours like a musician uses the tones, chords and scales of colourful forms.

As early as 1910, his friendship with Franz Marc enabled him to spend time at Lake Tegernsee. Macke's sensitivity for light effects was already evident in the paintings he created there. This is heightened in the watercolour paintings he produced on the famous trip to Tunis he made with Paul Klee and Louis Moillet in 1914. Simplification of form and the luminosity of the colours characterise this series of works.

For the first time in 1913, Macke‘s work was exhibited together with the works of the European avant-garde at the Sonderbund exhibition in Cologne, which he co-organised.

From 1913 Macke lived in Switzerland with his wife Elisabeth and his son Walter. But the family's happiness only lasted for a short time. As soon as the First Wolrd War began, August Macke was killed on the battlefield in Champagne, France, on 26 September 1914. His friend Franz Marc commented: "The greedy war is a hero's death richer, but German art poorer by one hero."

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