View source for August Macke

{{Short description|German painter}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2023}}
{{Distinguish|Auguste Maquet}}
{{Expand German|topic=bio|date=7 January 2025|August Macke}}
{{more citations needed|date=July 2015}}
{{Infobox artist
| name          = August Macke
| image         = August Macke 042.jpg
| image_upright = 0.9
| caption       = August Macke, ''[[Self-portrait]],'' 1906, oil on canvas
| birth_name     = 
| birth_date     = {{birth date |1887|1|3|df=y}}
| birth_place    = [[Meschede]], German Empire
| death_date     = {{death date and age |1914|9|26|1887|1|3|df=y}}
| death_place    = near Perthes-lès-Hurlus, [[Champagne (province)|Champagne]], France
| resting_place  = German Military Cemetery, [[Souain-Perthes-lès-Hurlus]]
| nationality   = German
| field         = Painting
| training      = 
| movement      = [[Expressionism]]
| works         = [[List of works by August Macke|List of paintings]]
| patrons       = 
| awards        =  
|module={{Infobox person|child=yes
| signature     = Macke autograph.png}}
}}

'''August Robert Ludwig Macke''' (3 January 1887 – 26 September 1914) was a German Expressionist painter. He was one of the leading members of the German [[Expressionist]] group ''[[Der Blaue Reiter]]'' (The Blue Rider). He lived during a particularly active time for German art: he saw the development of the main German Expressionist movements as well as the arrival of the successive avant-garde movements which were forming in the rest of Europe. As an artist of his time, Macke knew how to integrate into his painting the elements of the avant-garde which most interested him.<ref name="augustmacke.org">{{cite web |title=August Macke – The Complete Works – Biography |website=augustmacke.org |url=http://www.augustmacke.org/biography.html |access-date=22 June 2019}}{{Circular reference|date=January 2022}}</ref> Like his friend [[Franz Marc]] and [[Otto Soltau]], he was one of the young German artists who died in the [[First World War]].

==Early life==
[[File:Straße mit Kirche in Kandern.jpg|thumb|''Street with church in Kandern'', 1911]]
August Robert Ludwig Macke was born in Germany on 3 January 1887, in [[Meschede]], [[Westphalia]]. He was the only son of August Friedrich Hermann Macke (1845–1904), a building contractor and amateur artist, and his wife, Maria Florentine, née Adolph, (1848–1922), who came from a farming family in Westphalia's [[Sauerland]] region. Shortly after August's birth the family settled at Cologne, where Macke was educated at the Kreuzgymnasium (1897–1900) and became a friend of Hans Thuar, who also became an artist. In 1900, when he was thirteen, the family moved to Bonn, where Macke studied at the Realgymnasium and became a friend of Walter Gerhardt and Gerhardt's sister, [[Elisabeth Erdmann-Macke|Elisabeth]], whom he married a few years later.

The first artistic works to make an impression on the boy were his father's drawings, the Japanese prints collected by his friend Thuar's father and the works of [[Arnold Bocklin|Arnold Böcklin]] which he saw on a visit to Basel in 1900. In 1904 Macke's father died, and in that year Macke enrolled at the [[Kunstakademie Düsseldorf]], under [[Adolf Maennchen]] (1904–1906). During this period he also took evening classes under Fritz Helmut Ehmke (1905), did some work as a stage and costume designer at the [[Schauspielhaus Düsseldorf]], and visited northern Italy (1905) and Netherlands, Belgium and Britain (1906).

==Artistic career 1907–1914==
[[File:August Macke, 1912, Rokoko, oil on canvas, 89 x 89 cm, National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design, Norway.jpg|thumb|''Rokoko'',1912, oil on canvas, 89 x 89 cm, [[National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design]], Norway]]
[[File:Macke - Seiltänzerin (1913).jpg|thumb|''Tightrope walker'', 1913]]
Thereafter Macke lived most of his creative life in [[Bonn]], with the exception of a few periods spent at [[Lake Thun]] in Switzerland and various trips to Paris, Italy, the [[Netherlands]] and [[Tunisia]]. In Paris, where he traveled for the first time in 1907, Macke saw the work of the [[Impressionism|Impressionists]], and shortly after he went to Berlin and spent a few months in [[Lovis Corinth]]'s studio. His style was formed within the mode of French Impressionism and [[Post-Impressionism]] and later went through a [[Fauvism|Fauve]] period. In 1909 he married Elisabeth Gerhardt. In 1910, through his friendship with [[Franz Marc]], Macke met [[Wassily Kandinsky|Kandinsky]] and for a while shared the non-objective aesthetic and the mystical and symbolic interests of [[Der Blaue Reiter]].

Macke's meeting with [[Robert Delaunay]] in Paris in 1912 was to be a sort of revelation for him. Delaunay's chromatic [[Cubism]], which [[Guillaume Apollinaire|Apollinaire]] had called [[Orphism (art)|Orphism]], influenced Macke's art from that point onwards. His ''Shops Windows'' can be considered a personal interpretation of Delaunay's ''Windows,'' combined with the simultaneity of images found in Italian [[Futurism (art)|Futurism]].

[[File:August Macke - Türkisches Café - G 13325 - Lenbachhaus.jpg|thumb|upright|''Türkisches Café'']]
The exotic atmosphere of Tunisia, where Macke traveled in April 1914 with [[Paul Klee]] and [[Louis Moilliet]] was fundamental for the creation of the [[Luminism (Impressionism)|luminist]] approach of his final period, during which he produced a series of works now considered masterpieces, like his famous painting ''Türkisches Café''. August Macke's oeuvre can be considered as [[Expressionism]] (in its original [[German Expressionism|German flourishing]] between 1905 and 1925), and also as part of Fauvism. The paintings concentrate primarily on expressing feelings and moods rather than reproducing objective reality, usually distorting colour and form.

Macke's career was cut short by his early death in the second month of [[World War I|the First World War]] at the front in Champagne, France, on 26 September 1914. He was buried in the German Military Cemetery in [[Souain-Perthes-lès-Hurlus]].<ref name="bio1">{{cite web |url=http://www.august-macke-haus.de/01e_version/macke/augustmacke.htm |title=Biography |website=August Macke Haus |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20070801190536/http://www.august-macke-haus.de/01e_version/macke/augustmacke.htm |archivedate=1 August 2007 |url-status=dead}}</ref>  His final painting, ''[[:Image:August Macke 001.jpg|Farewell]]'', depicts the mood of gloom that settled after the outbreak of war.

==Selected paintings==
{{Main|List of works by August Macke}}
<gallery widths="154px" heights="154px">
File:August Macke 036.jpg|''The artist's wife in blue hat'', 1909
File:Macke - Staudacherhaus am Tegernsee.jpg|''Staudacher's house at the Tegernsee'', 1910
File:1910 Macke Tegernsee Landschaft anagoria.JPG|Tegernsee landscape, 1910, [[Germanisches Nationalmuseum]]
File:Macke - Landschaft am Teggernsee mit lesendem Mann.jpg|''Landschaft am Tegernsee mit lesendem Mann'', 1910
File:August Macke 030.jpg|''St. Mary's with houses and chimney (Bonn),'' 1911, [[Kunstmuseum Bonn]]
File:August Macke 014.jpg|''Vegetable fields,'' 1911, [[Museum Ludwig]], [[Cologne]], Germany
File:1912 Macke Walterchens Spielsachen anagoria.JPG|Little Walter's Toys, 1912, [[Städel]]
1913 Macke Zwei Mädchen anagoria.JPG|Two girls, 1913, [[Städelsches Kunstinstitut]]
File:August Macke - Leute am blauen See.jpg|''Leute am blauen See'', 1913
File:Macke, August - Promenade - Google Art Project.jpg|''[[Promenade (Macke)|Promenade]]'', 1913
File:August Macke 005.jpg|''Lady in a Green Jacket,'' 1913, [[Museum Ludwig]], [[Cologne]], Germany
File:August Macke 004.jpg|''View into a lane,'' 1914, watercolor
File:August Macke 023.jpg|''Kairouan (III)'', 1914, [[watercolor]], Westphalian State Museum for Art and Cultural History, [[Münster]]

File:Macke Hutladen III.jpg|''Hutladen III'', 1914
File:Macke - Rotes Haus im Park.jpg|''Red house in the park'', 1914
File:August Macke - Bernhard Koehler.jpg|''Portrait of Bernhard Koehler'', 1910, [[Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus]], Munich
File:August Macke 051.jpg|''Turkish Café'', 1914, [[Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus]], Munich
File:August Macke - Indianer auf Pferden.jpg|''[[Indians on Horseback]]'', 1911, [[Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus]], Munich
</gallery>

==August Macke Prize==
{{Main|August Macke Prize}}
The [[August Macke Prize]], was given the first time in 1959 by the districts Arnsberg, Brilon, Olpe and [[Meschede]], town of birth of August Macke in Germany.

==August-Macke-Haus==
{{Main|August-Macke-Haus}}
The [[August-Macke-Haus]] is a museum dedicated to August Macke founded in 1991. It is located in Macke's former home in [[Bonn]], where he lived from 1911 to 1914.

==Art market==
At a 1997 [[Christie's]] auction, Macke's ''The Couple at a Garden Table'' (1914) was sold for £2 million.<ref name="Melikian 1997">{{cite news |last=Melikian |first=Souren |agency=International Herald Tribune |title=Great Substitution Game Generates High Stakes and Huge Profits |website=The New York Times |date=25 October 1997 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1997/10/25/news/great-substitution-game-generates-high-stakes-and-huge-profits.html |access-date=22 June 2019}}</ref> ''Market in Tunis'' (1914) sold for £2.86 million ($4.1 million) in 2000.<ref name="Melikian 2000">{{cite news |last=Melikian |first=Souren |title=Brokerages May Alter the Art Game : Earthquakes in the Auction World |website=The New York Times |date=28 October 2000 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2000/10/28/style/IHT-brokerages-may-alter-the-art-game-earthquakes-in-the-auction-world.html |access-date=22 June 2019}}</ref> Consigned by the estate of [[Ernst Beyeler]], the artist's ''In the Bazar'' (1914) was auctioned for £3.96 million – then four and a half times the high estimate – at Christie's in 2011.<ref name="Melikian 2011">{{cite news |last=Melikian |first=Souren |title=Christie's Sale Soars, Driven by Beyeler Estate |website=The New York Times |date=23 June 2011 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/23/arts/23iht-Melikian23.html |access-date=22 June 2019}}</ref>

In 2007, the Berlin auction house Villa Grisebach sold Macke’s ''Woman with a Parrot in a Landscape'' for €2.4 million, setting a record price for the artist. The painting's provenance mentioned it was confiscated in 1937 as 'degenerate'. In the 2008 catalogue of Macke’s works, [[Hildebrand Gurlitt]], Hitler's art dealer was mentioned in the provenance.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Schmidt |first=Thomas E. |date=2013-11-30 |title=Münchner Kunstfund: August Macke aus Gurlitt-Nachlass bei Grisebach versteigert |url=https://www.zeit.de/kultur/kunst/2013-11/auktionshaus-gurlitt-bild |access-date=2024-11-24 |work=Die Zeit |language=de-DE |issn=0044-2070}}</ref>

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
*{{cite book |last=Cohen  |first= Walter |title=August Macke |publisher=Parkstone International |location=New York |year=2013 |isbn=9781783101566 |oclc=855505275 }}
*{{cite book |last=Heiderich |first=Ursula |title=August Macke Aquarelle : Werkverzeichnis |trans-title=August Macke Watercolor : catalog raisonné |publisher=Hatje |location=Ostfildern-Ruit |year=1997 |isbn=9783775707039 |oclc=38269020 |language=de }}
*{{cite book |last1=Heiderich |first1=Ursula |last2=Franz |first2=Erich |title=August Macke und die frühe Moderne in Europa |trans-title=August Macke and early modernism in Europe |publisher=Hatje Cantz |location=Ostfildern-Ruit |year=2001 |isbn=9783775711463 |oclc=473387539 |language=de }} (exhibition catalogue)
*{{cite book |last=Meseure |first=Anna |translator-last1=Galbraith |translator-first1=Iain |title=August Macke, 1887-1914 |publisher=Taschen |location=Koln & New York |year=2000 |orig-year=1991 |isbn=9783822858592 |id={{OCLC|49359514|438429433}} |oclc=224848547 }}
*{{cite book |last1=Moeller |first1=Magdalena M |last2=Dahlmanns |first2=Janina |title=August Macke und die Rheinischen Expressionisten : Werke aus dem Kunstmuseum Bonn und anderen Sammlungen : Brücke-Museum Berlin, 28. September 2002 bis 5. Januar 2003 : Kunsthalle Tübingen, 18. Januar bis 6. April 2003 |publisher=Hirmer |location=München |year=2002 |isbn=9783777495408 |id={{OCLC|51061551|558197343}} |language=de |trans-title=August Macke and the Rhenish Expressionists: Works from the Kunstmuseum Bonn and other collections: Brücke-Museum Berlin, September 28, 2002 to January 5, 2003: Kunsthalle Tübingen, January 18 to April 6, 2003}} (exhibition catalogue)
*{{cite book |last=Vriesen |first=Gustav |title=August Macke |location=Stuttgart |edition=2nd |orig-year=1953 |publisher=[[W. Kohlhammer]] |year=1957 |oclc=930409382 |language=de }}

==External links==
{{Commons}}
{{Wikiquote}}
*[http://geokerk.googlepages.com/robertdelaunay%2Clettertoaugustmacke%2C1912 Robert Delaunay, letter to August Macke, 1912] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070507012908/http://geokerk.googlepages.com/robertdelaunay%2Clettertoaugustmacke%2C1912 |date=7 May 2007 }}
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20070801190536/http://www.august-macke-haus.de/01e_version/macke/augustmacke.htm Biography with photos at August Macke Haus web site]
*{{Internet Archive author |sname=August Macke}}
*{{Librivox author |id=1314}}

{{August Macke}}
{{Der Blaue Reiter}}
{{Degenerate art}}
{{Authority control (arts)}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Macke, August}}
[[Category:August Macke| ]]
[[Category:1887 births]]
[[Category:1914 deaths]]
[[Category:20th-century German painters]]
[[Category:20th-century German male artists]]
[[Category:German Expressionist painters]]
[[Category:German male painters]]
[[Category:German military personnel killed in World War I]]
[[Category:German Orientalist painters]]
[[Category:People from Meschede]]
[[Category:People from the Province of Westphalia]]
[[Category:German Army personnel of World War I]]