Franz Marc Three Cats

by Michael
(London)

Three Cats was made in 1913. It is Oil on canvas. It's size is: 72 x 102 cm. The German artist, Franz Marc, was a talented expressionist painter who struggled to find his style and when he had he was cruelly killed like so many men of his generation in the first world war, in 1916 during the Battle of Verdun, when a piece of shrapnel hit him in the head. He apparently died instantly. Tragically an order had been made to withdraw him from combat but it came through too late.

Franz Marc was born in Munich in 1880. His father was a landscape painter. His mother a repressive influence. He struggled like nearly all of us with what to do with his life and chose to follow his father's work. He suffered anxiety and gradually got himself together while working as an artist in Paris (they all seemed to be in Paris at around this time).

He formed an artists group Der Blaue Reiter artist circle with Macke a friend and fellow artist. Influenced by cubism and futurism his work is stark and dark. Marc had a great knowledge of animal anatomy which helped him express himself through his art.

Marc related colors to emotions, "Blue is the male principle, astringent and spiritual. Yellow is the female principle, gentle, gay and spiritual. Red is matter, brutal and heavy and always the colour to be opposed and overcome by the other two."



From Franz Marc Three Cats to Cats in Paintings