Cows Yellow, Red & Green by Franz Marc

Franz Marc was a Seminarian and a Philosopher, he held a strong connection to nature, the world around him and animals in particular. He was a strong believer in the god like qualities of animals and held them in a much higher regard than humans

Animals are for this reason the subject of many of his paintings.

This painting in particular is an Oil on Canvas dating from 1911 fits perfectly with the back-to-nature movement of the twentieth century which was prevalent across Europe at the time of its creation. In fact, by this point Franz Marc had been exclusively painting animals in nature for 4 years.

This image depicts 2 cows in yellow and red. The background is bold vivid green and brown showing stylised leaves. The painting itself is in the Expressionism style.

Franz Marc was also a student of Colour Symbolism which shows through strongly in this image. He wanted to evoke metaphysical realms through the colour combinations he chose for his paintings.

This painting is a very similar style to his more famously known Yellow Cow painting which depicts just one Yellow cow. Art historians who have studied this paining have interpreted this particular image as an abstract self portrait of himself and his wife Maria on their wedding day. With the feminine yellow of the cow representing his wife and the masculine triangular background representing himself.

Franz Marc did in fact marry in 1911 giving further weighting to this theory. There is much less known about the background to Cows, Red, Yellow and Green but as it was painted in the same year in the same style it is believed to have a similar meaning.