Lot 19
  • 19

August Macke

Estimate
900,000 - 1,200,000 USD
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Description

  • August Macke
  • Badende Mädchen (Girls Bathing)
  • Signed A. Macke and dated 13 (lower center); stamped with the Nachlass mark on the reverse

  • Oil on canvasboard
  • 9 1/2 by 7 1/2 in.
  • 24 by 19 cm

Provenance

Dr. Joseph Haubrich, Cologne (by 1947)

Private Collection, Germany (acquired from the above)

Wolfgang Werner, Bremen (acquired from the above in 1983)

Diethelm Hoener, Germany (acquired from the above and sold: Phillips, de Pury & Luxembourg, New York, The Hoener Collection, November 5, 2001, lot 24)

Acquired at the above sale

Exhibited

Berlin, Erste Ausstellung der freien Sezession, 1914, no. 145

Berlin, Galerie Ferdinand Moeller, Neuere deutsche Kunst aus Berliner Privatbesitz, 1928, no. 15

Cologne, Museen der Stadt Köln in der Alten Universität, August Macke, Gedächtnisausstellung, 1947, no. 48

Braunschweig, Kunstverein, August Macke, 1954, no. 63

Münster, Westfälischer Kunstverein, August Macke, Gedenkausstellung zum 70. Geburtstag, 1957, no. 78

Amsterdam, Stedelijk Museum, Expressionisme van Gogh tot Picasso, 1964, no. 81

Literature

Walter Cohen, "August Macke", Jahrbuch der jungen Kunst, vol. 3, Leipzig, 1922, illustrated in color opposite the title page

Walter Cohen, "August Macke", Der Cicerone, Leipzig, September 1922, illustrated in color p. 710

Gustav Vriesen, August Macke, Stuttgart, 1953, no. 436

Gustav Vriesen, August Macke, Stuttgart, 1957, no. 436, illustrated p. 332

Donald E. Gordon, Modern Art Exhibitions 1900-1916, Munich, 1974, no. 145, p. 818

Ursula Heiderich, August Macke, Gemälde, Werkverzeichnis, Ostfildern, 2008, no. 515, illustrated p. 485

Condition

Excellent condition. The paint layer is clean and stable. Under ultra-violet light, there is very minor retouching in the 4 corners, but the remainder of the picture is undamaged and unrestored. Overall this work is in beautiful condition.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Catalogue Note

Shortly after the famous Herbstsalon had taken place in Berlin in the autumn of 1913, Macke moved with his wife Elisabeth and their two children to Hilterfingen in Switzerland, where the present work was executed.  The eight months that he spent there shortly before his early death the following year were among the happiest and most productive periods of the artist's life.  Badende Mädchen mirrors the world of primal innocence and freedom which he found in Hilterfingen, and this celebration the joys of outdoor life calls to mind a series of Bathers painted by Paul Cézanne.  Macke was particularly fascinated by the effects of light, and the brilliant, translucent quality of color typical of his watercolors is also visible in this oil painting.

 

Barry Herbert wrote: 'Macke's work was a constant reaffirmation of his unaffected delight in this earthly paradise of which he found himself to be a part, and in his paintings he recorded its small, apparently insignificant, moments of pleasure with a penetrating and tender eye for the underlying currents of feeling that made them memorable...  In them it is as if all worldly cares have been temporarily laid aside, self-consciousness has been forgotten, and these men and women once again experience something like their former state of innocence.  Their figures are static and calm in the midst of activity as they wait, quietly observing the ebb and flow of life around them – and it was no mere artistic affectation that made Macke show his characters either sunk deep in thought or in the act of silently watching.  The passing moment becomes fixed in time' (B. Herbert, German Expressionism, Die Brücke and Der Blaue Reiter, London, 1983, pp. 148 & 149).