Blue Horse II
Kunstmuseum Bern, Bern
Blue Horse II belongs to the run of animal paintings that made Franz Marc one of the defining painters of German Expressionism and a founder, with Wassily Kandinsky, of the Blaue Reiter group in Munich in 1911. Marc trained first in philosophy before turning to the Munich Academy of Fine Arts, and animals became his central and almost exclusive subject: he believed them innocent of the violence and thoughtlessness he saw building in human civilisation, and he studied their anatomy seriously, from books and from long hours sketching at Berlin Zoo, before distorting their forms into the bright, angular shapes of his mature paintings[1]. Colour in these works was never simply description. Marc developed a personal colour theory in which blue stood for the male principle, spiritual and austere, yellow for the female principle, gentle and sensual, and red for matter, heavy and brutal, a force the other two colours had to resist and overcome[1]. Horses carried a particular weight in this system, and in Marc's own painting. When Kandinsky and Marc chose a name for their new almanac and exhibiting group in 1911, the two men settled on Blue Rider for a reason as simple as personal taste: Kandinsky loved blue and riders, Marc loved blue and horses, so the name, by Kandinsky's own account, came of its own accord[2]. Marc did not live to see his reputation settle. He enlisted at the outbreak of the First World War in 1914 and was killed at Verdun on 4 March 1916, aged thirty-five; two decades later, the Nazi government condemned his work as degenerate and removed some 130 of his paintings from German public collections[3].
Where it is held
Held at Kunstmuseum Bern, Bern, Switzerland.
Held at Kunstmuseum Bern.
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Bern, Switzerland
Animals as the century's innocent bystanders
Marc turned to animal subjects early and never really left them. From around 1905 he painted bulls, cows, horses, deer, wolves, foxes and tigers, most often with a sympathetic, almost reverent quality rather than as neutral studies[1]. His reasoning was explicit rather than merely stylistic: he held that animals alone remained innocent of the corruption and arrogance he saw spreading through modern human society, and he wanted his paintings to carry that conviction rather than simply record an animal's likeness[1]. To make the distortion convincing rather than arbitrary, he studied anatomy properly first, working from books and from repeated observation at Berlin Zoo, so that the angular, simplified shapes in his finished paintings sat on top of real structural knowledge rather than replacing it[1].
A colour system built for horses
Marc's personal theory of colour, worked out around 1910 in correspondence with his friend August Macke, assigned each primary a temperament: blue was the male principle, spiritual and astringent; yellow the female principle, gentle and sensual; red was matter itself, heavy, brutal, and always opposed by the other two[1]. Horses became one of the main subjects through which he tested this system, since their bodies gave him large, simplified planes on which a single dominant colour could carry the picture's whole emotional charge. A blue horse, in this scheme, was never meant as an observation about an animal's actual colouring. It was a deliberate statement about spirit and restraint, made through the one colour Marc considered most inward and least of the earth.
Why the group was called Blue Rider
The name Marc and Kandinsky chose for their almanac and exhibiting circle in 1911, Der Blaue Reiter, grew directly out of this shared attachment to the colour blue. Kandinsky later recalled inventing the name while sitting at a coffee table in the Marcs' garden at Sindelsdorf: they both loved blue, Marc liked horses, Kandinsky liked riders, and the name arrived almost automatically from that overlap[2]. The group's first exhibition opened in Munich in December 1911, and its almanac, with lead essays by Marc, followed in May 1912. Blue Horse II belongs to exactly the pairing of colour and animal subject that gave the movement its name, painted by the artist whose own attachment to horses supplied half of it.
Common questions
Why did Franz Marc paint animals in unnatural colours?
Marc developed a personal colour theory where blue stood for a spiritual, restrained male principle, yellow for a gentle, sensual female principle, and red for heavy, brutal matter. A blue horse was a statement about temperament and spirit, not an observation about how horses actually look.
Where does the name Blaue Reiter (Blue Rider) come from?
Kandinsky and Marc chose it because they both loved the colour blue, Marc loved horses and Kandinsky loved riders. By Kandinsky's own account, the name came together almost automatically from that shared preference.
What happened to Franz Marc?
He enlisted when the First World War began in 1914 and was killed at Verdun on 4 March 1916, aged thirty-five. Decades later the Nazi government condemned his work as degenerate art and removed about 130 of his paintings from German public collections.
Where is Blue Horse II held?
It is held at Kunstmuseum Bern.
Sources
Editorial draws on the following references, verified against the museum and public-domain image record for this work.
- [1] book Susie Hodge, Artistic Circles Used for: this artwork.
- [2] book Dorothy Price, German Expressionism: Der Blaue Reiter and Its Legacies Used for: this artwork.
- [3] book Starr Figura, German Expressionism: The Graphic Impulse Used for: this artwork.
Editorial overseen by Solis Prints. Sources verified 2026-09-03. Click a source for details, or hover over [N] in the page above to preview.
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