AUGUST MACKE | Stilleben mit Strauss und drei Äpfeln (Still Life with Flowers and Three Apples)

Estate of the artist 
Wolfgang Macke, Berlin (son of the artist; acquired by descent from the above)
Galerie Aenne Abels, Cologne (acquired after 1952)
Herbert W. Momm, Cologne (acquired by 1957)
Sale: Kunstkabinett, Stuttgart, May 29-30, 1959, lot 534
Acquired at the above sale

Lausanne, Palais de Beaulieu, Exposition Nationale Suisse, Chefs-d’oeuvres des collections Suisses, 1964, no. 195
Marseille, Musée Cantini, Expressionnisme Allemand 1900-1920, 1965, no. 94
London, Arts Council of Great Britain, Sounds of Color, 1982, n.n.

Gustav Vriesen, August Macke, Stuttgart, 1953, no. 174, mentioned p. 277
Gustav Vriesen, "August Macke: Der Rote Weg,” in Westermanns Monatshefte, 1957, no. 174
Ursula Heiderich, August Macke Gemälde Werkverzeichnis, Ostfildern, 2008, no. 178, illustrated p. 347

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In 1910, August Macke was between the influences of Impressionism and Fauvism. He had left art school in 1906 in an attempt to explore artistic examples beyond strict academic traditionalism, traveling extensively to see examples of contemporary art first hand. Macke’s painting Stilleben mit Strauss und drei Äpfeln depicts Macke’s growing fascination with light and contrasting shapes that would prove fundamental to the painting principles of Der Blaue Reiter (see fig. 1).

Founded in 1911, Der Blaue Reiter counted artists Franz Marc, Wassily Kandinsky, Alexej von Jawlensky and Lyonel Feininger as members. The group adapted color theories of the French avant-garde and emphasized the manifestation of vibrant colors in their work. The present still life brilliantly reflects the artist's interest in ornament  spatial values defined by color. Macke himself opined: “The most important thing for me is the direct observation of nature in its light-filled existence... What I most cherish is the observation of the movement of colours. Only in this have I found the laws of those simultaneous and complementary colour contrasts that nourish the actual rhythm of my vision. In this I find the actual essence, an essence which is not born out of an a priori system or theory” (quoted in Gustav Vriesen, August Macke, Stuttgart, 1957, p. 120).

In Stilleben mit Strauss und drei Äpfeln the outline of the flower bouquet is clearly defined by the contrast of the flower colors with the bright yellow background. There is a sense of uncontained joy in the painting that is accentuated by the soft and free-flowing brushstrokes. Holzhausen captures Macke’s flare for spirituality in writing: “From beginning to end, his [Macke’s] works are characterized by an original spirituality. The stillness of his colors expresses ineffable joy, his figures with faces turned away, an incomprehensible sadness; his refined rhythms and forms are infinitely graceful. Here we witness the miracle of pure charm, so rare in German art” (Walter Holzhausen, “The Visit to Tunisia, Recollections and History,” in August Macke: Tunisian Watercolors and Drawings, New York, 1959, p. 23).