Franz Marc

Franz Moritz Wilhelm Marc (8 February 1880 – 4 March 1916) was a German painter and printmaker, one of the key figures of German Expressionism. He was a founding member of Der Blaue Reiter (The Blue Rider), a journal whose name later became synonymous with the circle of artists collaborating in it. His mature works mostly are animals, and are known for bright colors.From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0

The life and work of Franz Marc

Franz Marc was born in Munich the second son of the painter Wilhelm Marcand his Alsace-born wife Sophie. After one year’s military service he attended the Munich University to study philosophy and theology. He switched to painting in 1920 and studied for two years at the Kunstakademie. In 1903 he travelled to Paris where he first encountered the work of the Impressionists; the works of Gauguin and van Gogh particularly impressed him.

In 1909 Marc moved to Sindelsdorf with Maria Franck who was later to become his wife and a year later he met August Macke who was to become his closest friend. In 1911 he became a member of a Munich exhibiting society, the Neue Kunstlervereinigung and by the end of the year had moved on to the splinter group, Der Blaue Reiter. Marc concentrated animals for the most part, believing they were more important physically and spiritually than humans. He was a highly emotional painter regarding different colours as representing some feeling or perception of the animal. In 1912 he was exposed to the work of Robert Delaunay and this led Marc into further abstractions, most notably ‘Animal Destinies’ (1913).

Franz Marc was at the forefront of German Expressionism. His paintings were highly distinctive and incredibly powerful. He was very sensitive to his surroundings, a characteristic which was pushed to overload with the outbreak of the First World War. The death of Macke on the battle field disturbed him enormously. Sadly Marc was to succumb to the same fate a few months later.