Peter Maxfield says:
The full implication of this motif for the art of Franz Marc can best be seen in one of his last oil paintings, Tirol, painted in 1913 and retouched in 1914. The overall image of this painting is, as in Fate of the Animals, one of cataclysmic destruction. The heavens have broken asunder and mountains are crumbling and depositing rocks and ruin upon the village below. In the lower part of the painting two small cottages appear on a hilly bluff, and to the left of them stand two dead trees.
But our attention is consistently drawn to the dominant motifs of the foreground, the thin, diagonally inclined tree which sweeps across the canvas from the lower right-hand corner to the left center of the composition. The branches of this tree culminate in what can best be described as a sickle shape. The tree, in fact, assume the form of some giant scythe. The painting remained in this state throughout the year 1913, for it, to, along with Fate of the Animals, was exhibited at the First German Herbstsalon. After the exhibition closed, however, Marc asked to have the painting returned to him and later in 1914 he added, immediately above the diagonal tree, the same motif of the "Apocalptic Woman" that had fascinated artist of the late fifteenth century, the motif which indicated that a rebirth of man would follow the destruction of the evil society of the present, the motif which spoke of the coming "Age of Righteousness". (From: www.franzmarc.org/Tirol.jsp)
Peter Maxfield says:
Fate of the Animals: This work is also characteristic of the sense of apocalypse and doom which began to taint Marc's work at this time and could be related to his feelings on the impending war. In a 1915 letter to his wife Maria, Marc explains that this change in his art occurred because he began to see the ugliness in animals which he had previously thought only existed in humans. He states that he was no longer able to see the beauty which animals had once represented for him. The animal motifs which once conveyed a sense of emotion no longer held their appeal and possibility. The application of paint and the division of the picture plane through the use of lines and geometric shapes now carried the emotional charge previously conveyed by animals. This change may be related to Marc's ideas on the impending war. In apprehension of the First World War, Marc was part of the school of thought that the war would purify and redeem the universe of all that was bad. Marc no longer saw animals as separate entities in their own perfect kingdom, as he had once represented them. At the point when Marc began to identify the ugliness in animals, he recognized them as part of the universe which man also inhabited and which was in need of redemption. (From: www.franzmarc.org/Fate-of-the-Animals.jsp)
Peter Maxfield says:
In autumn 1912 Marc and Macke visited Robert Delaunay in Paris. This meeting and the confrontation with the intellectual foundations of French Cubism proved to be of immense importance for both. The principle of the transitory condition of all living things and their interpenetration, the simultaneity and inseparability of spirit and matter, is reflected in pictures such as In the Rain (1912), and one of Marc's major works, The Tiger (1912). In this work the figure of the dangerous, cunning animal appears crouching and yet ready to spring in the midst of formal structures whose crystalline construction corresponds to that of the physical presence of the animal. No dualism of any sort between animate and inanimate nature is shown. The indivisibility of all being was the essential spiritual message. (From: www.franzmarc.org/In-The-Rain.jsp)
Peter Maxfield says:
During the early years of this century, a back-to-nature movement swept Germany. Artists' collectives and nudist colonies sprung up in agricultural areas in the conviction that a return to the land would rejuvenate what was perceived to be an increasingly secularized, materialistic society. A seminarian and philosophy student turned artist, Franz Marc found this nature-oriented quest for spiritual redemption inspiring. His vision of nature was pantheistic; he believed that animals possessed a certain godliness that men had long since lost. "People with their lack of piety, especially men, never touched my true feelings," he wrote in 1915. "But animals with their virginal sense of life awakened all that was good in me." By 1907 he devoted himself almost exclusively to the representation of animals in nature. To complement this imagery, through which he expressed his spiritual ideals, Marc developed a theory of color Symbolism. His efforts to evoke metaphysical realms through specific color combinations and contrasts were similar to those of Wasily Kandinsky, with whom, in 1911, he founded the Blue Rider, a loose confederation of artists devoted to the expression of inner states.
For Marc, different hues evoked gender stereotypes: yellow, a "gentle, cheerful and sensual" color, symbolized femininity, while blue, representing the "spiritual and intellectual," symbolized masculinity. Marc's color theories and biography have been used by art historian Mark Rosenthal to interpret Yellow Cow. The frolicking yellow cow, as a symbol of the female principle, may be a veiled depiction of Maria Franck, whom Marc married in 1911. Extending this reading, Rosenthal sees the triangular blue mountains in the background as Marc's abstract self-portrait, thereby making this painting into a private wedding picture. Not all of Marc's paintings of animals are so sanguine, however. He often depicted innocent creatures in ominous scenes. Painted in 1913, The Unfortunate Land of Tyrol reflects the desolation caused by the Balkan Wars and their anticipation of pan-European battle; an Austro-Hungarian border sign included in the lower-left portion of the canvas indicates the vulnerability of this province. The cemetery and emaciated horses portend doom, but Marc's faith in the ultimate goodness of nature and the regenerative potential of war prevails: the rainbow and bird with outstretched wings reflect a promise of redemption through struggle. (From: www.franzmarc.org/The-Unfortunate-Land-of-Tyrol.jsp)
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