This small study shows August Macke’s wife Elisabeth, née Gerhardt (1888-1978), hunched over while reading a large book (compare Fig. 1). They met each other in Bonn in 1903, and the daughter of a prosperous business family soon became Macke’s most important model. The pair married in 1909, and Macke created more than 200 studies and portraits of her until his early death at the beginning of World War I. Just as she was able to be a great supporter of her husband during his lifetime, she became the staunchest defender of his work after his death.
It is solely to her credit that the majority of August Macke’s oeuvre survived the chaos and destruction of World War II. According to the artist’s catalogue raisonné as well as an inscription, this study originated during more peaceful days at the couple’s retreat Hinterfingen at Lake Thun, where the Macke family moved in 1913 to escape the art scene in Bonn.