Franz Marc

Artist Biography

Franz Marc, whose career was cruelly cut short by the First World War, has in recent years been the most popular of all the German Expressionists, with his nature-inspired art, prints and posters. Marc was born in Munich in February 1880. In high school, his plan was to read theology, but he eventually enrolled at Munich University as a student of languages. In 1900, however, when his year of military service was over, he decided to follow in his father's footsteps and become a painter. He enrolled at the Munich Academy of Art.

Franz Marc became one of the leading members of the expressionist Blue Rider Group. Marc is best known for his paintings of animals—particularly horses and deer—in which he attempted to express his mystical veneration of nature. In art, prints and posters such as Blue Horses, he used stylized lines and curves and brilliant unrealistic color to create and heighten the sense of nature idealized.

After 1913, in response to cubism and futurism, Franz Marc turned to abstraction, creating moods of clashing, discordant uncertainty in his painting, art, prints and posters. He was killed in action during World War I.

Franz Marc Art, Prints and Posters Collection