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Lot Essay
History shows us that when great artists are taken out of their environment to paint abroad, the excitement of foreign fields often inspires them to paint their greatest pictures. As evidence of this, one needs only to look at Paul Gauguin's extraordinary works painted in Tahiti, Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot's luminous landscapes of Italy, Claude Monet's majestic views of the Houses of Parliament or, more recently, David Hockney's California pictures of the 1960s.
The legendary trip to Tunisia made by August Macke, Paul Klee and Louis Moilliet is widely discussed by art historians as being a critical moment in the development of 20th Century colourism, but what is less often discussed is the fact that the three young artists only spent fourteen days there. These were two weeks of constant sketching and painting and endless discussions about form and colourism, inspired by the boyish enthusiasm generated amongst a close group of friends travelling together and working abroad. The impact of this expedition on all three artists was immense. The trip had a lasting effect on the direction of Klee's work from this moment on, Moilliet executed his only important work here and Macke, who died later the same year as a soldier in the German army, painted his most brilliant oils and watercolours during and immediately after this trip.
The expedition itself was the idea of Paul Klee who had already visited Tunisia in the spring of 1913 and was determined to return to this artists' paradise a year later with his friend Louis Moilliet. Whilst Moilliet was initially reticent to commit due to lack of funds, Klee raised the money for the trip by selling eight watercolours to the celebrated Bernese apothecary, Charles Bornand. That Christmas he put pressure on his friend Moilliet to come along and to bring with him August Macke whose work Klee greatly admired. Moilliet in turn raised the cash by selling a painting to the German government and then the two young artists set about the task of persuading Macke to join them.
In a letter of 15 January 1914, Macke wrote to his relative Bernhard Koehler, "Klee was recently here with his wife. He is an extremely charming man. A celebrated apothecary is paying his trip to Tunis in April. Louis Moilliet has also been extremely active and has recently sold a painting to the State. The two are trying to persuade me to take a relaxed approach to my field trip and to travel to Provence, Marseilles and Tunisia, returning through Sicily and Italy, and I think at the end of the day I will join them since it is not often that such great opportunities arise and I feel sure that artistically I would learn a great deal from such a trip". By return post, Macke received a letter from Koehler enclosing 500 Marks. Macke sent a wonderful note back saying "In truth, I don't think there is anything extraordinary about being a painter but I know that art is damned important and you believe in art with your heart and soul in a way that even few artists do. Why aren't all people like you? They would gain so much from art. And you can be sure that because you have committed yourself so fully to my expedition that you will also reap the rewards for it. What exactly this means I don't yet know myself. Perhaps a painting of a voluptuous harem girl".
En route to Tunisia, Macke visited L'Estaque, the coastal town where Georges Braque and Othon Friesz had been inspired to paint some of their greatest Fauve pictures. In his notebook, Macke executed a beautiful Cubist landscape entirely inspired by Braque which presages the artistic direction his Tunisian trip would lead him to take. Heavily influenced by Braque's Cubism and Delaunay's Orphism, Klee and Macke created a synthesis of these two critical modernist movements inspired by the colours, light and 'stacked' architecture of Tunisia.
The three young artists lived in some comfort in Tunisia after a very relaxed voyage on the Atlantic cruiser Carthage. Under the guidance of a Bernese doctor by the name of Jäggi, they sketched in Tunis harbour, they worked endlessley in the market, they spent time by the dea, made trips to Sidi-Bou-Said and even travelled as far as Hammamet. Macke was by far the most prolific of the three, executing as many as fifty drawings and several watercolours on his most productive days. On 13 April he wrote enthusiastically to his wife, "I turn my head and see a thousand subjects to paint, today I have already made fifty sketches. Yesterday twenty-five. I am working like the devil and am brimful of inspiration like never before. The African landscape is even more beautiful than Provence. I could never have imagined it. A mere 200 yards from us is a Bedouin encampment with black tents, herds of donkeys and camels that mill around us ... Yesterday we visited various Arab quarters. The women sat or stood in the doorways. It was a beautiful sight. So immensely colourful and with a clarity that reminded me of church windows ... I think I am going to bring an enormous amount of material home with me that I will only be able to work up and complete when I get back to Bonn".
In his own diaries, Klee wrote that it was on this trip that he really recognised that his true vocation was to be a painter.
Even during this short 14-day trip, there are clear signs of how Macke's and Klee's styles developed. The watercolours and drawings become consistently more geometric, the compositions rely completely on a synthesis of colours, their palettes become brighter and stronger and, although the compositions still contain figurative elements, the works become extremely abstract.
The majority of finished works inspired by Macke's trip are in watercolour. In working in this medium he was following the lead of Klee who encouraged him that the rigours of working in watercolour, which demanded that the artist should work with great speed, would bring great life to his compositions. However, as can be seen here in Markt im Tunis, unlike Klee, Macke found it extremely easy to translate his bravest watercolour compositions into oil. Moreover, in this oil he brings a complexity to the composition which does not exist in any of his watercolours.
On 4 August 1914 the First World War broke out and Macke was drafted into the German army. On 26 September, only three months after his return to Bonn from Tunisia, he died on the battlefield of Perthe-les-Hurles in Champagne, leaving behind him an extremely small body of major works which were painted in the space of only six months.
Before going off to war, Macke gave Markt im Tunis to his travelling companion, Louis Moilliet. It has rarely been exhibited and is largely known through black and white illustrations. Oils of this quality and type are almost exclusively in museum collections in Germany, such as the Städtische Kunsthalle Mannheim; the Kunstmuseum Bonn; the Lenbachhaus, Munich; and the Leopold-Hoesch Museum in Düren.
The legendary trip to Tunisia made by August Macke, Paul Klee and Louis Moilliet is widely discussed by art historians as being a critical moment in the development of 20th Century colourism, but what is less often discussed is the fact that the three young artists only spent fourteen days there. These were two weeks of constant sketching and painting and endless discussions about form and colourism, inspired by the boyish enthusiasm generated amongst a close group of friends travelling together and working abroad. The impact of this expedition on all three artists was immense. The trip had a lasting effect on the direction of Klee's work from this moment on, Moilliet executed his only important work here and Macke, who died later the same year as a soldier in the German army, painted his most brilliant oils and watercolours during and immediately after this trip.
The expedition itself was the idea of Paul Klee who had already visited Tunisia in the spring of 1913 and was determined to return to this artists' paradise a year later with his friend Louis Moilliet. Whilst Moilliet was initially reticent to commit due to lack of funds, Klee raised the money for the trip by selling eight watercolours to the celebrated Bernese apothecary, Charles Bornand. That Christmas he put pressure on his friend Moilliet to come along and to bring with him August Macke whose work Klee greatly admired. Moilliet in turn raised the cash by selling a painting to the German government and then the two young artists set about the task of persuading Macke to join them.
In a letter of 15 January 1914, Macke wrote to his relative Bernhard Koehler, "Klee was recently here with his wife. He is an extremely charming man. A celebrated apothecary is paying his trip to Tunis in April. Louis Moilliet has also been extremely active and has recently sold a painting to the State. The two are trying to persuade me to take a relaxed approach to my field trip and to travel to Provence, Marseilles and Tunisia, returning through Sicily and Italy, and I think at the end of the day I will join them since it is not often that such great opportunities arise and I feel sure that artistically I would learn a great deal from such a trip". By return post, Macke received a letter from Koehler enclosing 500 Marks. Macke sent a wonderful note back saying "In truth, I don't think there is anything extraordinary about being a painter but I know that art is damned important and you believe in art with your heart and soul in a way that even few artists do. Why aren't all people like you? They would gain so much from art. And you can be sure that because you have committed yourself so fully to my expedition that you will also reap the rewards for it. What exactly this means I don't yet know myself. Perhaps a painting of a voluptuous harem girl".
En route to Tunisia, Macke visited L'Estaque, the coastal town where Georges Braque and Othon Friesz had been inspired to paint some of their greatest Fauve pictures. In his notebook, Macke executed a beautiful Cubist landscape entirely inspired by Braque which presages the artistic direction his Tunisian trip would lead him to take. Heavily influenced by Braque's Cubism and Delaunay's Orphism, Klee and Macke created a synthesis of these two critical modernist movements inspired by the colours, light and 'stacked' architecture of Tunisia.
The three young artists lived in some comfort in Tunisia after a very relaxed voyage on the Atlantic cruiser Carthage. Under the guidance of a Bernese doctor by the name of Jäggi, they sketched in Tunis harbour, they worked endlessley in the market, they spent time by the dea, made trips to Sidi-Bou-Said and even travelled as far as Hammamet. Macke was by far the most prolific of the three, executing as many as fifty drawings and several watercolours on his most productive days. On 13 April he wrote enthusiastically to his wife, "I turn my head and see a thousand subjects to paint, today I have already made fifty sketches. Yesterday twenty-five. I am working like the devil and am brimful of inspiration like never before. The African landscape is even more beautiful than Provence. I could never have imagined it. A mere 200 yards from us is a Bedouin encampment with black tents, herds of donkeys and camels that mill around us ... Yesterday we visited various Arab quarters. The women sat or stood in the doorways. It was a beautiful sight. So immensely colourful and with a clarity that reminded me of church windows ... I think I am going to bring an enormous amount of material home with me that I will only be able to work up and complete when I get back to Bonn".
In his own diaries, Klee wrote that it was on this trip that he really recognised that his true vocation was to be a painter.
Even during this short 14-day trip, there are clear signs of how Macke's and Klee's styles developed. The watercolours and drawings become consistently more geometric, the compositions rely completely on a synthesis of colours, their palettes become brighter and stronger and, although the compositions still contain figurative elements, the works become extremely abstract.
The majority of finished works inspired by Macke's trip are in watercolour. In working in this medium he was following the lead of Klee who encouraged him that the rigours of working in watercolour, which demanded that the artist should work with great speed, would bring great life to his compositions. However, as can be seen here in Markt im Tunis, unlike Klee, Macke found it extremely easy to translate his bravest watercolour compositions into oil. Moreover, in this oil he brings a complexity to the composition which does not exist in any of his watercolours.
On 4 August 1914 the First World War broke out and Macke was drafted into the German army. On 26 September, only three months after his return to Bonn from Tunisia, he died on the battlefield of Perthe-les-Hurles in Champagne, leaving behind him an extremely small body of major works which were painted in the space of only six months.
Before going off to war, Macke gave Markt im Tunis to his travelling companion, Louis Moilliet. It has rarely been exhibited and is largely known through black and white illustrations. Oils of this quality and type are almost exclusively in museum collections in Germany, such as the Städtische Kunsthalle Mannheim; the Kunstmuseum Bonn; the Lenbachhaus, Munich; and the Leopold-Hoesch Museum in Düren.