Franz Marc
Franz Marc | |
---|---|
Born | Franz Moritz Wilhelm Marc 8 February 1880 |
Died | 4 March 1916 Braquis, France | (aged 36)
Education | Academy of Fine Arts, Munich |
Known for | Painting |
Notable work | The Tower of Blue Horses Yellow Cow Der Blaue Reiter Blue Horse I List of works |
Movement | Expressionism |
Cause of death | Killed in action at the Battle of Verdun |
Signature | |
Franz Moritz Wilhelm Marc (8 February 1880 – 4 March 1916)
His mature works mostly are animals, and are known for bright colors. He was drafted to serve in the German Army at the beginning of World War I, and died two years later at the Battle of Verdun.
In the 1930s, the Nazis named him a
Early life
Franz Marc was born in 1880 in Munich, the then capital of the
During his 20s, Marc was involved in a number of stormy relationships, including an affair lasting for many years with Annette Von Eckhardt, a married antique dealer nine years his senior. He married twice, first to Marie Schnür, then to Maria Franck; both were artists.[citation needed]
Career
In 1906, Marc traveled with his elder brother Paul, a
Der Blaue Reiter
In 1911, Marc founded the
Wartime
With the outbreak of
By 1916, he had been promoted to lieutenant and awarded the Iron Cross.[9]
After mobilization of the German Army, the government identified notable artists to be withdrawn from combat for their own safety. Marc was on the list but was struck in the head and killed instantly by a shell splinter during the Battle of Verdun in 1916 before orders for reassignment could reach him.[10]
Style
Marc made some sixty prints in woodcut and lithography. Most of his mature work portrays animals,[11] usually in natural settings. His work is characterized by bright primary color, an almost cubist portrayal of animals, stark simplicity and a profound sense of emotion. Even in his own time, his work attracted notice in influential circles. Marc gave an emotional meaning or purpose to the colors he used in his work: blue was used to portray masculinity and spirituality, yellow represented feminine joy, and red encased the sound of violence.
One of Marc's best-known paintings is Tierschicksale (Animal Destinies or Fate of the Animals), which hangs in the Kunstmuseum Basel. Marc had completed the work in 1913, when "the tension of impending cataclysm had pervaded society", as one art historian noted.[12] On the rear of the canvas, Marc wrote, "Und Alles Sein ist flammend Leid" ("And all being is flaming agony").[12][13] Serving in World War I, Marc wrote to his wife about the painting, "[it] is like a premonition of this war – horrible and shattering. I can hardly conceive that I painted it."[14]
Nazi Germany and the seizure of so-called "degenerate" art
After the
In 2017, the family of
Legacy and honors
Marc's family house in Munich is marked with a historical plaque. The Franz Marc Museum which is located in Kochel am See, opened in 1986 and is dedicated to the artist's life and work. It houses many of his paintings, and also works by other contemporary artists.[24]
In October 1998, several of Marc's paintings garnered record prices at Christie's art auction house in London, including Rote Rehe I (Red Deer I), which sold for $3.3 million. In October 1999, his Der Wasserfall (The Waterfall) was sold by Sotheby's in London for $5.06 million. This price set a record for Franz Marc's work and for twentieth-century German painting. In 2008, the former record was again broken when Marc's Weidende Pferde III (Grazing Horses III) was sold for £12,340,500 ($24,376,190) at Sotheby's.[25][26][27] This record was again beaten by the £42.6m sale of The Foxes in 2022. [28]
Public collections
Among the public collections holding works by Franz Marc are :
- Museum de Fundatie, Zwolle, Netherlands[29]
- Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York
- Kochel am See
- Lenbachhaus, Munich
- Detroit Institute of Arts
Selected images
-
Die gelbe Kuh, The Yellow Cow (1911), Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York
-
Fuchs, Fox (1911), Von der Heydt Museum in Wuppertal
-
Knabe mit Lamm; Der gute Hirte, Young Boy with a Lamb; The Good Shepherd (1911), Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York
-
Die kleinen blauen Pferde, The Little Blue Horses (1911), Staatsgalerie Stuttgart
-
Roter Stier, Red Bull (1912), Pushkin Museum in Moscow
-
Der Traum, The Dream (1912), Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum in Madrid
-
Das Äffchen, The Little Monkey (1912), Lenbachhaus, Munich
-
Die Füchse,The Foxes(1913), private collection
-
Der Tiger, The Tiger (1912), Lenbachhaus in Munich
-
Tierschicksale, Fate of the Animals (1913), Kunstmuseum Basel in Basel
-
Träumendes Pferd, Dreaming Horse (1913), Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York
-
Rehe im Walde I, Deer in Forest 1 (1913), The Phillips Collection
-
Rehe im Walde (II), Deer in the Forest II (1914)
See also
- The Tower of Blue Horses, 1913, missing since 1945
References
- ^ Gollek, Rosel (1990), "Marc, Franz", Neue Deutsche Biographie (in German), vol. 16, Berlin: Duncker & Humblot, pp. 106–108; (full text online)
- ^ Bailey, Martin (15 March 2017). "The search for Franz Marc's iconic blue horses". The Art Newspaper. Retrieved 16 October 2020.
- ^ Brady, Anna (March 2022). "Franz Marc's £42.6m Foxes leads Christie's marathon Shanghai-London auction of Modern and contemporary art". theartnewspaper.com. Retrieved 22 August 2022.
- OCLC 950028502.
- ^ ISBN 9783822820421.
- ^ OCLC 1003608626.
- ^ "Der Blaue Reiter" [The Blue Rider]. The Art Story. Retrieved 8 January 2021.
- ^ Newark, Tim (2007). Camouflage. Thames and Hudson / Imperial War Museum. p. 68.
- ^ Williams, Sonny (27 September 2021). "From the Clairière de l'Armistice to Franz Marc". Gray's Sporting Journal. Retrieved 12 June 2023.
- OCLC 1194440434.
- ISBN 0714832502.
- ^ a b Kleiner, Fred S. (2008). Gardner's Art Through the Ages. p. 916.
- ^ Rookmaaker, Hendrik Roelof (1994). Modern Art and the Death of a Culture. p. 136.
- ISBN 9781285839394.
- ^ Artdaily. "Exhibition of works sold by the Germans at the Lucerne auction in 1939 opens in Liege". artdaily.cc. Retrieved 22 February 2021.
- ^ Kimmelman, Michael (5 November 2013). "In a Rediscovered Trove of Art, a Triumph Over the Nazis' Will". The New York Times. Retrieved 8 November 2013.
- ^ "A painting by Franz Marc – Pferde in Landschaft (Horses in Landscape) which was found in the collection of Cornelius Gurlitt". Claims Conference/WRJO Looted Art and Cultural Property Initiative. Retrieved 22 February 2021.
- ^ "Düsseldorf faces Nazi-era claim for Franz Marc's foxes". www.theartnewspaper.com. 19 December 2017. Archived from the original on 22 December 2017. Retrieved 22 February 2021.
- ^ "German Lost Art Foundation - Project finder - Provenance Research on Franz Marc's "Foxes" of 1913". www.kulturgutverluste.de. Retrieved 15 April 2021.
- ^ "German Nazi-looted art panel recommends return of Franz Marc's Foxes to heirs of Jewish banker". The Art Newspaper - International Art News and Events. 26 March 2021. Archived from the original on 26 March 2021. Retrieved 29 March 2021.
Grawi's heirs said he sold the painting purely because of his need to finance the family's escape. The advisory commission said in a press statement that a majority of its members—with three dissenters—believed the work should be restituted 'even though the sale was completed outside the National Socialist sphere of influence, and, in the light of information currently available, the payment of a fair price and the opportunity for free disposal are plausible.' The sale was nonetheless 'so closely connected with National Socialist persecution that the location of the event becomes secondary in comparison', the panel said.
- ^ Selvin, Claire (14 April 2021). "Experts Recommend That German City Return Nazi-Looted Franz Marc Painting". ARTnews.com. Retrieved 15 April 2021.
The work has been in the Düsseldorf City Art Collection since 1962. Its original owner was the Jewish businessman and banker Kurt Grawi, who bought the painting in 1928 and fled Europe to Chile after being imprisoned at the Sachsenhausen concentration camp in Germany. In a letter from 1939, Grawi wrote that the sale of Foxes in New York would fund his emigration from Europe.
- ^ Fidler, Matt (31 January 2022). "A timber tiger and a lantern display: Monday's best photos". The Guardian.
- ^ "Restituted Franz Marc 'Foxes' Painting Leads Christie's Shanghai/London Sale". artfixdaily.com. Retrieved 22 August 2022.
- ^ "Franz Marc Museum". muenchen.de (in German). Portal München Betriebs-GmbH & Co. KG. 2021. Retrieved 8 January 2021.
- ^ "Record for Franz Marc Set at Sotheby's". artdaily.cc. Retrieved 11 October 2020.
- ^ "Franz Marc's Weidende Pferde III sold for £12.3 million ($24.3 million) at Sotheby's". The Art Wolf. 7 February 2008. Retrieved 15 October 2020.
- ^ "LOT 13- Franz Marc WEIDENDE PFERDE III (GRAZING HORSES III)". Sotheby's (in German). Retrieved 15 October 2020.
- ^ "FRANZ MARC (1880-1916) The Foxes (Die Füchse)". Christies.com. Retrieved 22 August 2022.
- ^ "De Fundatie Acquires 'Gewitterfront' by Neo Rauch". Museum de Fundatie. Retrieved 23 April 2021.
Further reading
- Düchting, Hajo (2009). Der Blaue Reiter. Köln: ISBN 978-3-8228-5577-5.
- Rosenthal, Mark (2004). Franz Marc. Prestel. ISBN 3-7913-3094-2.
- Partsch, Susanna (2001). Franz Marc. Translated by Williams, Karen. Köln: Taschen. OCLC 441351237.
External links
Media related to Franz Marc at Wikimedia Commons