The drawing comes from Franz Marc’s XXV Sketchbook from 1912.

Catalogue raisonné: Hoberg/Jansen 2011, Nr. XXV, p. 12

Provenance:

Maria Marc, Ried (the artist’s wife)

Galerie Otto Stangl, Munich (estate of Maria Marc, no. 156)

Galerie Nierendorf, Berlin

Private collection

Galerie Pels-Leusden, Berlin (1985)

Villa Grisebach, Berlin (10 June 1987, lot 199)

Christies, London (7 Oct. 2000, lot 68)

Private collection (2000-2024)

Franz Marc – Zwei Kühe mit aufgehender Sonne (1912)

The pencil drawing Zwei Kühe mit aufgehender Sonne (Two Cows with Rising Sun) from 1912 depicts two calmly standing cows set within a clearly structured, flattened landscape. With a confident hand and great draughtsmanship, Franz Marc captured the bodies of the animals in just a few assured lines. The forms are clearly outlined yet delicately modulated; subtle shading lends depth and cohesion to the volumes without diminishing the lightness of the sheet. In particular, the elegantly curved lines of the necks and backs testify to Marc’s exceptional sense of proportion, rhythm and movement.

The drawing originates from the artist’s XXVth Sketchbook and was created one year after the founding of the artists’ association Der Blaue Reiter in 1911, which Marc established together with Wassily Kandinsky, Gabriele Münter and other artists. During this highly productive period, Marc developed his characteristic formal language, in which animal representations function as vehicles for spiritual and formal ideas. The drawing compellingly demonstrates how precisely and intensely Marc first explored his motifs through drawing before translating them into colour.

In terms of motif, composition and pictorial execution, the sheet is closely related to Franz Marc’s major works Kühe, rot, grün, gelb (1911, Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Munich) and Die gelbe Kuh (1911, The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, New York). Zwei Kühe mit aufgehender Sonne thus offers a direct insight into the development of Marc’s animal imagery within the context of German Expressionism and the Blaue Reiter movement.