''Fox'', also known as ''Blue and Black Fox'' or ''Blue Fox'', is an oil on canvas painting by

Franz Marc Franz Moritz Wilhelm Marc (8 February 1880 – 4 March 1916) was a German painter and printmaking, printmaker, one of the key figures of German Expressionism. He was a founding member of ''Der Blaue Reiter'' (The Blue Rider), a journal whose ...

, from 1911. It is part of the collection of the

Von der Heydt Museum The Von der Heydt Museum is a museum in Wuppertal, Germany. The Von der Heydt Museum includes works by artists from the 17th century to the present time. History The museum is housed in the former city hall of Elberfeld, which in 1902 became ...

Wuppertal Wuppertal (; ) is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, in western Germany, with a population of 355,000. Wuppertal is the seventh-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia and List of cities in Germany by population, 17th-largest in Germany. It ...

Description

The painting depicts in the central position, a fox turned to the left, lying on the ground, under a tree, in a relaxed, half-curled pose. A tree trunk and some leaves are indicated on the right side of the painting. The strong coloring of the background as an abstract landscape with strong complementary contrasts of blue / yellow and orange / red / green is reminiscent of the after-effects of French

Fauvism Fauvism ( ) is a style of painting and an art movement that emerged in France at the beginning of the 20th century. It was the style of (, ''the wild beasts''), a group of modern artists whose works emphasized painterly qualities and strong col ...

and its color conception on German Expressionism. In the period before the

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

, Marc often painted foxes. Among them is the painting '' The Foxes'' (1913), in the

Museum Kunstpalast The Kunstpalast, formerly Kunstmuseum Düsseldorf is an art museum in Düsseldorf. History The roots of the museum go back around 300 years. In 1932, the collection of the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf (Academy of Art) was housed in the Kunstmus ...

Düsseldorf Düsseldorf is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second-largest city in the state after Cologne and the List of cities in Germany with more than 100,000 inhabitants, seventh-largest city ...

, in a Cubist inspired style, in which he had further developed abstraction compared to earlier works.

Origin and classification

The painting was created in July 1911 in fellow painter

August Macke August Robert Ludwig Macke (3 January 1887 – 26 September 1914) was a German Expressionist painter. He was one of the leading members of the German Expressionist group Der Blaue Reiter (The Blue Rider). He lived during a particularly activ ...

's studio in

Bonn Bonn () is a federal city in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, located on the banks of the Rhine. With a population exceeding 300,000, it lies about south-southeast of Cologne, in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ruhr region. This ...

, when Marc was returning from a trip to

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

. A few months later, on December 18, 1911, the exhibition group

Der Blaue Reiter ''Der Blaue Reiter'' (''The Blue Rider'') was a group of artists and a designation by Wassily Kandinsky and Franz Marc for their exhibition and publication activities, in which both artists acted as sole editors in the almanac of the same name ...

, founded by Franz Marc and

Wassily Kandinsky Wassily Wassilyevich Kandinsky ( – 13 December 1944) was a Russian painter and art theorist. Kandinsky is generally credited as one of the pioneers of abstract art, abstraction in western art. Born in Moscow, he spent his childhood in ...

, had its first exhibition, in

Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...

. Marc quickly created ''Fox'', together with the work ''Red Dog''. The ''Fox'' was offered to the curator of the Barmer Kunstverein, Richart Reiche, who was exhibiting Marc's works. Reiche was able to find a buyer for the ''Red Dog''. These two paintings belong to his early group of animal representations in which pure colors were used, in the function of symbols or the so-called essential colors. With the colors red / yellow / blue (primary colors) and orange / green / violet (secondary colors), Marc used the system of spectral colors as a basis in this painting. The ''Fox'' is an example often used to illustrate the color contrasts.

Provenance

The work came into the possession of the

in 1952 through a donation by Eduard von der Heydt from a collection that his father August von der Heydt had started.Erika Günther, ''Bildführer Gemälde des 19. und 20. Jahrhunderts'', Von der Heydt-Museum Wuppertal, Wuppertal, 1996 (German), ISBN 3-89202-031-0, S. 157.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Fox (painting) 1911 paintings Paintings by Franz Marc Foxes in art Oil on canvas paintings Paintings in Germany Animal paintings

Description

Origin and classification

Provenance

See also

References

External links