Three Animals (Drei Tiere)

Three Animals (Drei Tiere) by Franz Marc, created in 1912, is a masterful example of the German Expressionist period, rendered in the powerful, reductive medium of the woodcut.

This piece demonstrates Marc's increasing move toward abstraction, a key characteristic of his evolving style from 1911 onward. The woodcut technique, favored by many Expressionists for its directness and stark contrast, requires the artist to carve away negative space, resulting in bold, angular outlines and simplified volumes. The three animals-their species deliberately generalized to emphasize form over realistic detail-are fused together within a dense compositional field, their bodies interlocking in a dynamic rhythm rather than existing in separate, delineated spaces. This deliberate severity, characteristic of Expressionist prints, contrasts sharply with the vibrant symbolic color found in Marc’s contemporary oil paintings, yet both media served his goal of portraying the inner spiritual life of nature.

As a leading figure in the Der Blaue Reiter (The Blue Rider) movement, Marc utilized the symbolic power of animals to convey universal harmonies and critique the modern industrial world. The formal structure of the composition, heavily reliant on sharp diagonals and crystalline segmentation, reflects the influences of Cubism and Futurism filtering into the German avant-garde during the period around 1912. Marc’s innovative use of positive and negative space transforms the subject matter into an expression of pure energy and form. This work, essential to understanding the evolution of 20th-century prints, is held in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art.