Franz Marc

Franz Marc was a seminal figure in German Expressionism and co-founded Der Blaue Reiter (The Blue Rider). Having trained at the Munich Academy of Fine Arts, his early paintings were traditional in style. However, time spent in Paris pushed his work in a more modern direction, especially after becoming entranced by Picasso’s Cubism and Gaughin’s Post-Impressionism during a trip in 1908. In 1910 he met August Macke who introduced him to Expressionist coloring. The following year, Marc and Wassily Kandinsky formed The Blue Rider group that became synonymous with vivid color schemes and abstraction. Marc was also obsessed with capturing spiritual truth via symbolic use of animal imagery. Despite dying whilst fighting at the Battle of Verdun (aged 36), he had a huge influence on German Expressionism in the years after World War I. During the 1930s, his paintings were among many avant-garde works deemed ‘degenerate’ by the Nazis.