Crouching Deer by Franz Marc

Looking at Crouching Deer

A dark deer folds its legs beneath its body in Franz Marc’s Crouching Deer. It rests within a shallow, enclosed space: a pale, forked tree stands at the left, a thick dark trunk drops at the right, and a broad red-brown form fills the distance behind the animal. The deer’s head is turned inward, its muzzle nearly touching the curve of its back. The compressed setting makes the animal feel sheltered, while strong black and blue strokes keep the picture visually active. The work is catalogued in German as Kauerndes Reh and dated 1911. ^{[1] [2]}

Watch: Franz Marc

Explore Marc’s blue horses, the Blue Rider circle and the move towards abstraction in English-language videos.

Franz Marc, Blue Horses and Der Blaue Reiter

The Canvas

An English-language introduction to Marc’s blue horses, animals, spirituality and the Blue Rider.

Watch on YouTube

▶01 · Marc and his horsesFranz Marc, Blue Horses and Der Blaue ReiterThe Canvas▶02 · The Blue RiderWho were the Blue Rider?Tate▶03 · Towards abstractionThe Case for AbstractionThe Art Assignment · PBS Digital Studios

A compact forest scene

The deer is almost black against the warmer ground, but it is not just a silhouette. Small lighter marks pick out its eye and the front of its body. Its raised head and folded limbs can be found by following the outer curve from the back to the muzzle and then across the dark chest. The trunks do more than frame this pose. The pale tree branches above the animal; a blue stroke follows its lower left edge. On the other side, the darker trunk leans inward. These opposing lines press the space toward the centre, making the deer the still point among more abrupt forms. ^[2]

The 2002 auction catalogue describes tempera on cardboard mounted on wood, measuring 41.5 × 49.5 cm. Marc used colour in large, strongly bounded areas here: red-orange ground behind the deer, yellow light around the upper branches, dark green and violet-blue below. None of those colours needs to be assigned a fixed emotional code to explain the composition. Their immediate effect is spatial. The warm area pushes forward, the dark animal settles against it, and the pale tree interrupts both. ^[1]

Recorded exhibition and ownership

Phillips records the painting at the 1912 Sonderbund exhibition in Cologne as catalogue number 452. The digitised exhibition database lists a Marc deer at that number under the title Ruhendes Reh (“Resting Deer”). That title difference is worth keeping visible: historical catalogues did not always use the later name attached to a work. The auction record also gives a chain through the Nothmann collection in Berlin, O’Hana Gallery in London and private collections. It establishes what was recorded at the 2002 sale, not the painting’s present location. ^{[1] [3]}

The Franz Marc Museum’s later exhibition catalogue reproduces Kauerndes Reh among works from the period in which Marc made animals central to his art. That context helps explain its place in his development, but the image itself remains the best guide to the individual work: one folded deer, enclosed by trees and colour, with a quiet pose held inside a forceful design. It is a separate object from the similarly titled Sleeping Deer and the 1913 Red Deer. ^[2]