Franz Marc: “Deer in the Monastery Garden” (1912), reproduction on cardboard

Franz Marc spent many hours observing animals in their natural habitat. The German painter sought to see nature through the eyes of a deer. He allowed the environment to permeate the animal, making the deer an integral part of it, one with it. In 1912, Marc encountered the dynamism of the Italian Futurists and, in Paris, the colors of Cubism, or "Orphism," as exemplified by Robert Delaunay. From then on, he departed from his naturalistic style, structuring the canvas with radiating planes of color. Combined with the contrasts of light and dark, these elements resulted in paintings that were almost luminous and atmospheric, emerging from within. Marc engaged with Naturalism, Art Nouveau, and French Impressionism, but ultimately searched for a new language of expression to depict "the spiritual essence of things." With unprecedented consistency, he paved the way for an art in which colors acquired symbolic meaning far beyond naturalistic representation: "Every color must clearly state who and what it is, and must stand on a clear form," Marc explained. For him, blue was the color of the spiritual, red represented love, passion, and vulnerability, and yellow symbolized the sun and femininity. Animals were central to his paintings, as they, unlike humans, symbolized primal origins and purity for him. Just like Kandinsky, he sought the renewal of the spiritual in art.