One of Macke's last paintings was the unfinished work that now bears the title Farewell. "With absolute clarity," Vriesen states, "the picture reflects the gloom and numbness that befell public life" before the first year of war was out, "the mood of uncertainty and disquiet which took possession of Macke as well." (http://hoocher.com/August_Macke/August_Macke.htm) A year after The Milliner’s Shop he was drafted into the German Army. The artists of the Western World had called for the destruction of the old world. Sub-consciously the empires that protected them agreed. As if by compulsion, they committed group suicide. The trenches were dug and August was posted to the French province of Champagne. A few weeks later he was dead, killed in action. Mowed down alongside 200,000 anonymous others. He was 27 years old. His last work, the gloom of which brings Kirchner to mind, was called “Farewell”. (https://stillchaos.wordpress.com/2010/08/31/the-death-of-august-macke/)