The Hat Shop 1913

August Macke's painting, *The Hat Shop*, presents a world viewed through layered filters of colour and form. The broad brushstrokes feel efficient, almost like he's sketching with paint, capturing a fleeting impression. The texture has a lovely roughness, like dry pigment dragged across the canvas. See how the red of the woman’s coat is applied so directly, you can almost feel the bristles of the brush. It's this directness that gives the painting its energy, a kind of joyous immediacy. The contrasting placement of the red coat against the browns and greys really emphasizes the consumerist nature of the scene. The hat shop calls to mind similar paintings by Kirchner and Beckmann, but Macke’s work feels less fraught, more playful. It’s this optimism, this love of colour and form for their own sake, that makes Macke's work so enduring.