It is impossible to be sure what stylistic path Macke would have followed had he lived a normal life span, because he died age 27 in combat as the Western Front was forming in the aftermath of Germany's defeat in the Battle of the Marne.
As the title of this post indicates, my take on Macke is that he had too much regard for real world appearances to get fully sucked into the modernist "isms" of the early 20th century. Whether this restraint would have continued beyond 1914 is anyone's guess. My opinion is that he was one of the most likable modernist German painters of his time.
Macke appears to be wearing his army uniform, which dates this photo in October 1908 or later, as that was the month he began his required service. Elisabeth, who he married in 1910, is the subject of three images below.
A more modernist version of Elisabeth but, as usual, a restrained Modernism.
A landscape without Fauvist coloring.
A scene in Bonn.
A painting from Macke's imagination. Wild West adventure stories were popular in Wilhelmine Germany.
He experimented with Orphist abstractions, a new art fashion at the time.
Colors here are more poster-like than Fauvist.
"Large, Bright Display Window" is my English title to this watercolor that includes some Cubist elements. The female figure is not Cubist, as Macke seemed reluctant to depart far from that reality.
Another in a series showing women shopping for clothing and fashion articles.
Lady in Green Jacket (1913) and Hat Shop (1914) were the two Macke images I have seen most often, presumably because posters and magazines were becoming increasingly involved in the booming women's fashion industry.
ReplyDeleteI have never seen the 1909 portrait of Elisabeth Gerhard before, but this was the earlier, more impressive painting. So thank you.