Elisabeth at the desk

At the end of October 1909 Macke moved to Tegernsee, a lake in Bavaria south of Munich, and stayed a little over a year. He painted more than 150 pictures in that time, and a great many of them are small interiors.

This is one of the smallest, 22 centimetres high, on a wooden panel rather than canvas. Elisabeth, his wife, is at a desk with her head down.

She turns up constantly in the Tegernsee paintings, reading, sewing, later holding their son, and almost always with her eyes lowered, which is what gives that whole run of pictures their shut-in quiet. The panel belongs to a private owner and hangs in Münster on long-term loan. Catalogues date it 1909 to 1910, so it comes from the first months by the lake.