by Tom Gurney
Tom Gurney BSc (Hons) is an art history expert with over 20 years experience
Published on June 19, 2020 / Updated on October 17, 2026
Email: tomgurney1@gmail.com / Phone: +44 7429 011000
Looking at Animal Legend
An animal seems to spring out of a dense tangle of pale and dark shapes. Curved lines cross angular leaves and bodies, making the subject appear gradually as the eye follows the marks. Franz Marc’s Animal Legend (Tierlegende) is a 1912 woodcut. The National Gallery of Art holds one impression in its Rosenwald Collection, accession 1954.12.88. That physical print is a different kind of object from an oil painting or a modern poster of the same image. [1]
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Watch on YouTubeThinking in cut shapes
In a woodcut, the artist carves a block so its raised areas can be inked and pressed onto paper. The remaining uninked areas provide light. Marc could simplify an animal and its environment into strong contrasts; the print does not depend on the blue and red that dominate some of his canvases. The National Gallery describes an arrangement of angular and flowing lines that suggests an antelope-like creature and smaller animals amid foliage. Those identifications are a reading of the image, not a claim that every shape has a settled name. [1] [2]
Marc had begun woodcutting with Horses Resting in 1911, according to MoMA. It identifies 46 prints in his short career and describes his interest in making the image through the material resistance of wood. Animal Legend lets a viewer see why that process mattered: the shapes feel cut and printed, not drawn with a fine continuous brush. The combination of animals and interlocking setting connects the print to Marc’s wider questions about creatures in nature while giving those questions a distinct graphic form. [2]
Which print is pictured?
The National Gallery catalogues its impression as a woodcut and links it with Klaus Lankheit’s catalogue number 831. The image shown here comes from that museum’s own record. Other impressions of a woodcut can differ in inking, paper or state, so an image of one collection sheet should not silently stand for every example. A museum’s original print and a later digital reproduction also have different histories and rights. [1]
The pleasure of Animal Legend lies in the moment when the marks begin to resolve into living forms, then nearly merge again with their surroundings. Its “legend” need not be turned into a single invented story. The printed contrasts give the animal world a structure viewers can discover for themselves.
Artwork Directory
This source-checked selection contains 192 identified works and print designs from the current Franz Marc research set. It is a curated selection, not a complete catalogue raisonné. Some works link to their article here; others link to a collection record. Unresolved identifications are omitted.
Discussion
The woodcut asks the eye to separate animals from a dense black-and-white pattern.
Reader Insights
Observation
Where does an animal first emerge from the cut lines?
Comparison
How does this woodcut create movement differently from a painted animal scene?
Interpretation
What remains uncertain after you have found the main figure?
Join the Conversation
Which detail changed the way you saw this work? Share a close observation or a comparison with another Marc picture.
References
- National Gallery of Art, Animal Legend. View source.
- MoMA, German Expressionist woodcut. View source.
- Related artwork image, Yellow Cow: Photograph by Dr. Alexey Yakovlev; resized without crop or colour change, CC BY-SA 2.0.
- Splash image: Franz Marc, Animal Legend, 1912, woodcut. Rosenwald Collection, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1954.12.88. Public-domain image from the NGA. Object record.
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