.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
Macke is often referred to as a member of the "Blaue Reiter". Doubtless his encounter with the members of the group vastly stimulated his ideas as well as his work, yet Macke's own paintings were markedly individual. He was one of the first of his countrymen to recognize the importance of the Impressionists and Post-Impressionists and to adapt elements of their style to his own use.
Macke first visited Paris in 1907, when he left to spend the summer in the capital. This gave him the opportunity to see great Impressionist paintings at first hand and immerse himself in the extraordinary colourist experiments of the French avant-garde. It was not until 1909, however, that Macke finally saw the works of the Fauve artists for the first time.
In 1912, Macke made a final decisive visit to Paris to meet Robert Delaunay. The impact of their meeting on Macke was immediate. Colour became Macke's most personal and natural means of expression where the planes of colour, rather than the objects themselves, constituted the structural elements of the pictorial form. He concentrated on the effects of light and more particularly on its emotionally expressive possibilities. Through light, the full spectrum of colours was rediscovered.
An interest in Orientalism was a mainstay of French painting and literature in the late Nineteenth Century. Sharing this passion for the exotic, Macke made a trip to visit a monumental exhibition of Oriental art, Meisterwerke Muhammedanischer Kunst being held in Munich in 1910. This interest further led him to visit Tunisia in 1914, where he created a series of watercolours which brought him international fame. Executed two years prior to his trip to Tunisia, Frau mit Korb unter Bäumen already reflects an impression of exotic travels, showing many of the chromatic characteristics to be encountered in his Tunis watercolours. It is in these years that Macke's debt to the glowing and vibrant colours of Matisse and his French contempraries becomes most apparent. Previously in the collection of the Galerie von Garvens, one of the most renowned avant-garde galleries in Germany during the 1920s, Frau mit Korb unter Bäumen was confiscated by the National Socialists from the Nationalgalerie in Berlin where it was most probably housed until 1939.
Macke first visited Paris in 1907, when he left to spend the summer in the capital. This gave him the opportunity to see great Impressionist paintings at first hand and immerse himself in the extraordinary colourist experiments of the French avant-garde. It was not until 1909, however, that Macke finally saw the works of the Fauve artists for the first time.
In 1912, Macke made a final decisive visit to Paris to meet Robert Delaunay. The impact of their meeting on Macke was immediate. Colour became Macke's most personal and natural means of expression where the planes of colour, rather than the objects themselves, constituted the structural elements of the pictorial form. He concentrated on the effects of light and more particularly on its emotionally expressive possibilities. Through light, the full spectrum of colours was rediscovered.
An interest in Orientalism was a mainstay of French painting and literature in the late Nineteenth Century. Sharing this passion for the exotic, Macke made a trip to visit a monumental exhibition of Oriental art, Meisterwerke Muhammedanischer Kunst being held in Munich in 1910. This interest further led him to visit Tunisia in 1914, where he created a series of watercolours which brought him international fame. Executed two years prior to his trip to Tunisia, Frau mit Korb unter Bäumen already reflects an impression of exotic travels, showing many of the chromatic characteristics to be encountered in his Tunis watercolours. It is in these years that Macke's debt to the glowing and vibrant colours of Matisse and his French contempraries becomes most apparent. Previously in the collection of the Galerie von Garvens, one of the most renowned avant-garde galleries in Germany during the 1920s, Frau mit Korb unter Bäumen was confiscated by the National Socialists from the Nationalgalerie in Berlin where it was most probably housed until 1939.