Four Girls

After a visit to Paris in 1907, French Impressionism had a decisive impact on Rhineland artist August Macke. He concentrated on everyday motifs and placed the emphasis on both colour and visual immediacy. In the spirit of German Expressionism, as a member of the group Blaue Reiter and influenced by the dynamic-colourful painting of Robert Delaunay (Orphism) in the following years he created Paintings with simplified forms in rhythmic colour harmonies, in which representationalism and perspective begin to disappear in favor of an ornamental two-dimensionality. The portrayal of the Four Girls was produced in Macke’s highly productive time in Bonn (1910-13); there is something contemplative about the scene in which the figures and the surrounding nature are shown in calm harmony. In his later works, influenced by his trip to Tunis in 1914, Macke was to further increase the transparency of colours, flatness and abstract forms. (Sophia Stang)