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拍品专文
Constructed in planes of bright, vivid colour, Kolonnade mit Segelboot II captures the inherent dynamism of August Macke’s painterly style during the final year of his life, before his untimely death on the frontlines of the First World War. Painted in 1913-1914 and executed in oil on panel, the work focuses on a small group of elegant figures as they meander through an arcaded walkway, rounded arches framing the view of the town beyond, shop windows on one side, a church tower on the other. The work is closely related to the oil on card Kolonnade mit Segelboot I (Heiderich no. 528; Private Collection), which presents on an expanded view of the same imagined subject in an elongated landscape format, this time featuring a trio of architectural archways, the third of which offers a glimpse of a lakeshore and sailboats, granting the two compositions their titles. In the present painting, Macke focuses on the far left segment of this view and the junction of two of the arches, where a well-dressed couple walk one way down the colonnade, as a family of three pass them travelling in the opposite direction, creating a powerful sense of cross-ways movement.
In the autumn of 1913, Macke had relocated with his family to the picturesque surroundings of Lake Thun in Switzerland, staying in a small house owned by his mother-in-law. Over the course of the following eight months, immersed in the peaceful countryside and quiet rhythms of life in Switzerland, Macke’s art entered a period of intense evolution. Exploring scenes of leisure inspired by his new surroundings – from people strolling along the lakeshore on sun-dappled pathways, to figures sitting and conversing at cafés, and fashionable characters window shopping in the town of Hilterfingen – his compositions focused increasingly on scenes of quiet tranquillity, interpreted through a geometric, colour-filled lens. ‘In these… pictures, which shine like jewels, one sees an intense concentration…,’ the artist’s wife, Elisabeth Macke, later explained. ‘They are truly poetic visions of everyday life painted with unabashed joy and with a deep, fervent commitment’ (quoted in H. Friedel and A. Hoberg, The Blue Rider in the Lenbachhaus, Munich, Munich, 2000, cat. 103, n.p.).
What most interested Macke at this time was the sense of dynamic energy conveyed not only by the formal organisation of space, but also by the constructive interplay of vibrant colour. In 1913 he wrote: ‘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. It is only in this that 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 G. Vriesen, August Macke, Stuttgart, 1953, p. 120). In Kolonnade mit Segelboot II, the entire composition is structured through carefully demarcated planes of luminous, jewel-like colour, the artist’s short, structured brushstrokes lending a sense of depth and dimension to the passages of paint. The woman to the left of the painting, for example, sports a peacock blue coat with an almost iridescent play of pigment, the quick, diagonal brushwork suggesting how the light catches the material and causes it to shimmer. The vaulted ceiling and pillars of the colonnade, meanwhile, are delineated in a rich variety of rose-tinted hues, ranging from bright vermillion to deep crimson, soft blush to burgundy, in a manner that conveys the subtle play of light and shadow within the arcade, generating volume and depth and a concrete sense of the architectural passageway.
Macke’s bold approach to colour and form in this work was deeply influenced by the contemporary avant-garde. He avidly followed the latest developments and trends sweeping through the European art scene, from Fauvism to Cubism, Futurism to Orphism, cultivating friendships with fellow artists and collectors, and visiting cutting-edge exhibitions in both France and Germany. In Kolonnade mit Segelboot II, the nuanced treatment of colour and simplification of form shares a particular affinity to the paintings of Robert Delaunay, whose work Macke had first seen at the inaugural Blaue Reiter exhibition in 1911. During a trip to Paris the following year with Franz Marc, Macke visited Delaunay’s studio, where he had the privilege of seeing the artist’s iconic Fenêtre paintings under construction – ‘When I see the houses and the Eiffel Tower through these sunlit window panes,’ he later wrote, ‘… my heart opens up’ (quoted in August Macke : Gemälde, Aquarelle, Zeichnungen, exh. cat., Städtisches Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Munich, 1987, p. 85). Here, Macke echoes Delaunay’s Orphic compositions in the interaction between the rhythmic curved arches of the colonnade, and the geometric, abstracted vision of the town beyond, the glass windows of the shops simplified and reduced to rectangles of softly gradated shades of yellow, the church a sequence of geometric rectangular planes.
The painting was acquired directly from Macke in May 1914 by Anna and Richard Koehler, his wife Elisabeth’s aunt and uncle. Like Richard’s brother Bernhard, the couple had been crucial supporters of Macke’s work since the earliest stages of his career – they acquired several works by the artist through the years, and Anna sat for a portrait by the painter in 1908 (Heiderich no. 74; Private Collection). Kolonnade mit Segelboot II was passed down to their daughter in 1937, and was subsequently acquired by Dr. Schmidt-Ott in 1949. It has remained in the family collection ever since, and makes its auction debut in this sale.
In the autumn of 1913, Macke had relocated with his family to the picturesque surroundings of Lake Thun in Switzerland, staying in a small house owned by his mother-in-law. Over the course of the following eight months, immersed in the peaceful countryside and quiet rhythms of life in Switzerland, Macke’s art entered a period of intense evolution. Exploring scenes of leisure inspired by his new surroundings – from people strolling along the lakeshore on sun-dappled pathways, to figures sitting and conversing at cafés, and fashionable characters window shopping in the town of Hilterfingen – his compositions focused increasingly on scenes of quiet tranquillity, interpreted through a geometric, colour-filled lens. ‘In these… pictures, which shine like jewels, one sees an intense concentration…,’ the artist’s wife, Elisabeth Macke, later explained. ‘They are truly poetic visions of everyday life painted with unabashed joy and with a deep, fervent commitment’ (quoted in H. Friedel and A. Hoberg, The Blue Rider in the Lenbachhaus, Munich, Munich, 2000, cat. 103, n.p.).
What most interested Macke at this time was the sense of dynamic energy conveyed not only by the formal organisation of space, but also by the constructive interplay of vibrant colour. In 1913 he wrote: ‘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. It is only in this that 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 G. Vriesen, August Macke, Stuttgart, 1953, p. 120). In Kolonnade mit Segelboot II, the entire composition is structured through carefully demarcated planes of luminous, jewel-like colour, the artist’s short, structured brushstrokes lending a sense of depth and dimension to the passages of paint. The woman to the left of the painting, for example, sports a peacock blue coat with an almost iridescent play of pigment, the quick, diagonal brushwork suggesting how the light catches the material and causes it to shimmer. The vaulted ceiling and pillars of the colonnade, meanwhile, are delineated in a rich variety of rose-tinted hues, ranging from bright vermillion to deep crimson, soft blush to burgundy, in a manner that conveys the subtle play of light and shadow within the arcade, generating volume and depth and a concrete sense of the architectural passageway.
Macke’s bold approach to colour and form in this work was deeply influenced by the contemporary avant-garde. He avidly followed the latest developments and trends sweeping through the European art scene, from Fauvism to Cubism, Futurism to Orphism, cultivating friendships with fellow artists and collectors, and visiting cutting-edge exhibitions in both France and Germany. In Kolonnade mit Segelboot II, the nuanced treatment of colour and simplification of form shares a particular affinity to the paintings of Robert Delaunay, whose work Macke had first seen at the inaugural Blaue Reiter exhibition in 1911. During a trip to Paris the following year with Franz Marc, Macke visited Delaunay’s studio, where he had the privilege of seeing the artist’s iconic Fenêtre paintings under construction – ‘When I see the houses and the Eiffel Tower through these sunlit window panes,’ he later wrote, ‘… my heart opens up’ (quoted in August Macke : Gemälde, Aquarelle, Zeichnungen, exh. cat., Städtisches Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Munich, 1987, p. 85). Here, Macke echoes Delaunay’s Orphic compositions in the interaction between the rhythmic curved arches of the colonnade, and the geometric, abstracted vision of the town beyond, the glass windows of the shops simplified and reduced to rectangles of softly gradated shades of yellow, the church a sequence of geometric rectangular planes.
The painting was acquired directly from Macke in May 1914 by Anna and Richard Koehler, his wife Elisabeth’s aunt and uncle. Like Richard’s brother Bernhard, the couple had been crucial supporters of Macke’s work since the earliest stages of his career – they acquired several works by the artist through the years, and Anna sat for a portrait by the painter in 1908 (Heiderich no. 74; Private Collection). Kolonnade mit Segelboot II was passed down to their daughter in 1937, and was subsequently acquired by Dr. Schmidt-Ott in 1949. It has remained in the family collection ever since, and makes its auction debut in this sale.