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This is regarded as the most mature of Macke's shop window paintings. It arose immediately after Zwei Frauen vor dem Hutladen and also builds on it. Theme and atmosphere are similar, typically urban, but anything but loud and hectic. The female figure, dressed in an elegant suit, wearing a hat with a white bouquet on her head and an umbrella over her shoulder, could have been taken right out of that earlier work. The lady has no face and remains anonymous, as if she were a fashion doll.
Compositionally, Macke has arranged the image space along clear diagonal perspective lines. The plane-disintegrating geometric shape of the stone facade with the carved pilasters and the shop window, as well as the abstracted figure, fit into the structure of the painting like mosaic stones and form an integrated unit. This also applies to the use of color, with deliberately chosen accents around the middle. The woman's clothing, predominantly warm reds and yellows, corresponds to the hats in the shop window on stands, which are decorated with ribbons and feathers. The light breaks in the window. Reflections mix both inside and outside with the spaces and surfaces. The transparent surfaces in the shop window are echoed in the rustic pilaster on the side.
The attraction of the work lies mainly in the clear and firm power of the composition and the radiant expressive power of the contrasting colours. The atmospheric figurative description of the situation is naturally mixed with a cool abstract effect, giving the painting a special classical-modern tension.Woman with Umbrella in Front of a Hat Shop was purchased in 1920 by the Museum Folkwang, in Essen, then called Essener Kunstmuseum. In 1937 it was confiscated by the Nazis as degenerate art, but in 1953 the work was bought back by the museum, with the support of the city of Essen. It is now regarded as one of her top works in the collection of modern German art.
Museum Folkwang Essen degenerate art