August Macke

Russisches Ballett I, 1912

August Macke and the Rhenish Expressionists

Work. 1914

August Macke (January 3, 1887 – September 26, 1914) was one of the leading members of the German Expressionist group Der Blaue Reiter (The Blue Rider). He lived during a particularly innovative time for German art which 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. Like a true artist of his time, Macke knew how to integrate into his painting the elements of the avant-garde which most interested him.

August Macke began his studies in Düsseldorf in 1904 at the Kunstakademie. However he was truly inspired by his evening courses with printmaker Fritz Helmuth Ehmcke at the Kunstgewerbeschule.

August Macke died in World War I in 1914. In the 1958 Stuttgarter Kunstkabinett auction catalog, the painting is listed as being in the Macke estate. There is also a stamp on the painting’s original frame for the August Macke Estate. August Macke had two sons, Walter (1910 -1927) and Wolfgang (1913-1975).