To be frank, I chose Franz Marc because I am a cat person and this painting instantly caught my eye. Upon further investigation, I found that his other works based on animals are also very stunning. They are brightly coloured and the various ways they are rendered are very interesting to see.

Marc ended up being a very important painter to the German expressionist movement despite putting his military service and work first before pursuing art. Under the influence of his father who was a talented landscape painter himself, Marc eventually entered Munich Academy of art. He is yet another painter who started off with a realistic and natural foundation but later distorted it in favor of a more emotional atmosphere. In his color analysis, he associated blue with masculine, yellow with feminine and red with the violence of the chaotic world at the time. He also founded the group Der Blaue Reiter, a group of people who used abstracted forms/colors and symbolism to overcome to toxicity of the 19th century, mainly World War 1. I definitely do see it as a way to cope with the overwhelming changes happening during the 20th century as well. The world was rapidly changing in technology and social order so Marc was able to alleviate his anxieties through painting, the best way he knew how.

Sources:

https://www.theartstory.org/artist-marc-franz-artworks.htm

https://www.guggenheim.org/artwork/artist/franz-marc