August Macke Hand Painted Oil Paintings

Biography of August Macke

August Macke was born in Meschede, Germany, and during his childhood he spent time in Basle where he came into contact with the work of Böcklin. Trained in Germany, August Macke made several trips to Paris, where he came in contact with impressionism and the fauvist and cubist painters. A brilliant colorist, he joined the artists Franz Marc and Kandinsky and exhibited with the Blaue Reiter group. His early Impressionist style developed into a use of strong, sunlit color applied in painterly facets of light.

His preferred subject matter remained urban scenes of shopping and leisure. His North African work had a more structured appearance, and in 1913 he experimented with pure abstraction and also produced many watercolors. In 1914 he traveled with Paul Klee to South Africa. There he created watercolors of a fine transparency with subtle prismatic patterns. Macke had barely finished Farewell when he was conscripted. He was killed in World War I.

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