Two animals 1913

Franz Marc made this painting of animals with watercolor, and when you look at it, you can see how the colours kind of wash into each other. It’s like he’s trying to catch something fleeting. I can really feel the artist trying to work something out – maybe how animals see the world? Look at that big red shape – it could be a body, or maybe just raw emotion. And the blue – is that sky, or just a feeling of openness? The green sort of merges into the black of the animal’s head. He's playing with colour, trying to find a way to show what it feels like to be an animal, not just what it looks like. It reminds you of other early expressionist painters, like Kandinsky, who were also trying to find ways to paint feelings, and sounds. It’s like Marc is having a conversation with them, and with us, about how we see and feel the world.