August Macke’s Unter den Lauben von Thun (Ein Spaziergängermotiv) — loosely, Under the Arcades of Thun (A Promenade Motif) — turns an everyday walk into a shifting mosaic of colour. Painted in 1913, the scene is organised around loosely described figures moving and gathering beneath the covered arcades. Reds, yellows and greens flare against passages of deep blue and black, while the architecture above them dissolves into an angular canopy of overlapping tones. Rather than recording the street with literal precision, Macke builds its life from rhythm: repeated silhouettes, broken patches of colour and abrupt transitions between brightness and shade.

Macke was one of the leading painters associated with Der Blaue Reiter, the Munich-based group that helped shape German Expressionism before the First World War. His art absorbed ideas circulating across the European avant-garde, yet he often applied them to scenes of leisure and ordinary public life rather than to overtly dramatic subjects. Promenades, parks, shop windows and strolling figures gave him a framework through which to explore modern colour and perception. Thun, in Switzerland, belonged to a landscape Macke knew directly: he lived for a period at nearby Hilterfingen on Lake Thun, and works from this time frequently translate the region’s streets, gardens and waterside life into lucid arrangements of simplified form.

A closer look

The foreground is animated by groups of pedestrians, several dressed in dark clothing and apparently paused in conversation. Their features are barely stated. Faces, hats and coats are reduced to compact shapes, so that posture and placement carry more weight than individual identity. Near the lower left, a smaller blue-clad figure walks away from the principal cluster, creating a counter-movement to the broader visual flow across the composition. Differences in scale help establish depth, but Macke never allows the scene to settle into conventional illusionism: figures remain emphatic patches on the painted surface.

Above the crowd, the arcades form a broken sequence of coloured planes rather than a sober architectural framework. Warm red and yellow passages press against cool greens and blues, giving the sheltered walkway an unexpectedly radiant atmosphere. Light seems to arrive in fragments, catching certain figures and sections of the overhead structure while leaving others embedded in dark shadow. The eye moves from these shadowed silhouettes towards the upper right, where a large, brightly coloured umbrella becomes one of the composition’s strongest accents. Its segmented surface echoes the painting’s wider patchwork construction, while a second red umbrella farther to the right adds another sharp note among the crowd.

At close range, the brushwork keeps the colour active. Edges are often firm enough to hold a figure or object together, yet they do not describe every contour. Variations within the reds suggest bodies in motion; dark outlines around the umbrella sharpen it against the lighter surrounding passages. The background offers only hints of an urban setting, allowing architecture, pedestrians and shade to merge into a single, continuous pattern.

Context and significance

Created at a moment when Expressionism was reshaping lessons drawn from French painting and other strands of European modernism, Unter den Lauben von Thun demonstrates Macke’s particularly approachable form of experimentation. Simplification does not empty the scene of human presence; instead, it makes social movement more legible. The promenade becomes both a recognisable fragment of town life and an independent structure of colour, repetition and contrast.

What holds the composition together is this balance between observation and transformation. Thun remains identifiable as a lived urban setting, yet its arcades and pedestrians have been reorganised into something closer to a coloured cadence. The result is characteristic of Macke’s ability to find modern pictorial energy in the apparently unremarkable act of people walking through a town.

Choosing the right size and finish

Artwork can feel intimate at smaller sizes and dramatically more architectural at larger ones. Use the room preview, model image and size guide to see how the proportions and scale will work in your space.

If you need an exact size, specialist framing or help planning a larger display, ask our workshop for advice.

The model in the listing images is holding the 18x24in (45x60cm) version of this art print.

Where personalisation is available, you can add a short title or dedication, or one considered visual detail. See examples of personalised artwork.

Choose Original to retain the colour and character of the source artwork, or Aged for a warmer, more antique appearance. See examples of our Aged artwork.

Every piece is produced to archival standards using fade-resistant pigment inks on acid-free matte art paper. Choose an art print, framed art print or framed canvas using the finish options above.

Framed art prints use crystal-clear optical acrylic for excellent clarity, lower weight and safer delivery than glass. Each piece arrives professionally framed and ready to hang.

Selected artworks can be produced at statement sizes up to 3 metres (10ft). Custom sizing and specialist framing are also available. If the exact option you need is not listed, contact our workshop.

This artwork is also available as a float framed canvas, sometimes known as a shadow gap framed canvas or canvas floater. The work is printed on artist's cotton canvas and then stretched over a handmade box frame. We then "float" the canvas inside a wooden frame, which is available in a range of colours (black, dark brown, oak, antique gold and white). This is a wonderful way to present an art print without glazing in front. See some examples of float framed canvas art and explore the differences between my different finishes.