a dog, some music

thanks wikimedia. (PD:90)

Among the sheltering trees, with their boughs swelling and fading like a song, a woman plays a harp.  A dog noses up to see what makes this sound, and behind him two other creatures approach, eyes big with curiosity.  It may not truly have happened, but for the sake of August Macke (German, 1887-1914) I hope it did.  Macke drew this scene in crayon in 1913.  The next year he was killed at the front in WWI, aged 27.  Not a very long time to be alive, but he was already a major German Expressionist and one of the leaders of the Blue Rider group. The Blue Rider artists sought to create images that were more conduits to emotion and spiritual truth than strict reproductions of the visual.  Granted, emotions are in the heart of the beholder, but I see a wish for peace here, and trust personified in the curious dog.