August Macke’s Entwurf zur Tigerjagd (1912), or “Design for a Tiger Hunt”, compresses animal, hunters and vegetation into a densely animated vertical composition. A boldly striped tiger commands the centre, its dark body emerging against a warm beige ground, while smaller human figures gather and move through the lower part of the scene. Rather than describing the hunt through conventional depth and naturalistic detail, Macke builds its drama from overlapping forms, abrupt changes of scale and a vigorous pattern of black, umber and lighter brown.

Macke was a leading German Expressionist associated with Der Blaue Reiter, the Munich-based circle that sought alternatives to academic realism in the years before the First World War. Colour, rhythm and simplification became means of reorganising visible experience rather than merely copying it. Created in 1912, this study belongs to that concentrated period of early twentieth-century experimentation. Its subject may suggest narrative action, but its force lies equally in the way figures and surroundings have been transformed into a decorative, almost tapestry-like arrangement.

A closer look

The tiger forms the composition’s visual hinge. Broad black stripes articulate its body, while finer, fainter lines add a suggestion of fur without softening the animal’s emphatic silhouette. Its position near the centre gives it an imposing presence, yet the surrounding forms press closely around it; there is little open space in which the eye can rest. The result is not a distant spectacle but an encounter made immediate through compression.

Below, several human figures appear in varied poses, their gestures and partially indicated faces suggesting a scene already in motion. Macke does not separate them into a clearly ordered procession. Instead, bodies, limbs and abstract shapes interlock across a patterned lower zone. Overlapping forms provide a measure of depth, but the spatial construction remains deliberately shallow: foreground and background seem folded together across the surface.

The upper left contains stylised vegetation, while darker, less readily legible shapes occupy the right-hand side and help frame the central animal. Throughout, the pale ground acts as an active interval between the dense marks. Smooth passages are set against rougher, more heavily worked areas, and slight tonal variations within the brown and black forms prevent the restricted palette from becoming static. Small scattered marks hint at further incident without resolving every element into a fixed object.

Context and significance

Der Blaue Reiter was not defined by a single uniform style; its artists were united more broadly by an interest in the expressive possibilities of colour and form. Macke’s contribution was distinguished by a lucid sense of design and an ability to turn figures into rhythmic components of a composition. In Entwurf zur Tigerjagd, that impulse is visible even within the deliberately exploratory character of an Entwurf: the scene feels worked out through energetic relationships of mass, contour and tone rather than polished into descriptive finish.

The tiger hunt also allows Macke to move beyond the everyday modern-life subjects for which he is often known. Here, an unfamiliar and dramatic theme becomes the basis for pictorial experiment. The animal’s striped body, the clustered hunters and the fragments of vegetation operate both as narrative elements and as a system of recurring dark accents. It is this dual quality—part unfolding action, part concentrated visual design—that gives the 1912 composition its distinctive tension.

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.

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The model in the listing images is holding the 36x24in (90x60cm) version of this art print.

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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.