Born on 3rd January 1887, he was one of the leading members of the German Expressionist group Der Blaue Reiter (The Blue Rider). Born in Germany, Meschede, Westphalia. A son of August Friedrich Hermann Macke, a building contractor and amateur artist whose drawings were likely the first to make an impression on the young boy.

Apart from a few periods spent at Lake Thun in Switzerland and trips to Paris, Italy and Netherlands – most of his artistic life he lived in Bonn.

According to his Biography website (which can be found here)his work numbers in around 600 oil paintings, just as many water-colours and nearly 9,000 drawings.

He traveled to Tunisia in 1914, searching for exotic and colourful subject-matter; greatly inspired by his surroundings, he spent every day in the hot sun sketching mountains, palms, camels and whitewashed villages he saw.

A few months later, World War I began. He was conscripted into the army in early August and killed in action a few weeks later, aged 27.