Fabulous Beast II by Franz Marc

Marc became a prominent figure in the Expressionist movement, and founded the Blue Rider Journal which featured new art and emerging styles

The artist painted Fabulous Beast II in 1913, as part of a series of studies of familiar animals, such as dogs and horses.

The painting is in the Cubist style, and employs bold red and vivid blue colours. The painting depicts a horse, and is painted in Tempura on cardboard. Franz Marc was known for using bright colours and simplified, primitive shapes to represent emotions and the feelings of the animals themselves.

Marc painted in a stylised manner, blending the animals into the background of the painting, to portray his idea that animals are one with nature and life itself.

Marc's painting also gives the impression of movement and momentum, as if the animal might disappear from sight at any moment. Marc was interested in portraying the soul of the creatures, and tried to imagine himself within each animal he painted.

Marc found animals beautiful and pure, and said that humans were ugly in their behaviour. Marc was known to have a warmth toward animals and raised them to his own level through his paintings.

Marc was married twice but never had children, and many believed that he saw the animal subjects of his paintings as his children. He died in battle in World War I, after volunteering for the German Military, at the age of 36.

Franz Marc was a German Painter and Printmaker, born in Cologne, where his Father was a Landscape Painter. Marc studied in Munich at the Academy of Fine Arts, and later travelled to Paris to learn from other expressionist painters.