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 Haystacks in the Snow
Three snow-capped haystacks rise from a white landscape in Franz Marc's Haystacks in the Snow (Hocken im Schnee). The Ernst von Siemens Kunststiftung records the oil painting at the Franz Marc Museum in Kochel, dates it to about 1911 and gives its size as 79.5 × 100 cm. The foundation's essay by Annegret Hoberg places it at a turning point in Marc's treatment of form and colour. [1]
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The stacks are reduced to broad, rounded triangles. The left is red, the middle yellow-green and the right yellow-red, each under a white cap. Snow spreads across the foreground, with small dark marks interrupting the pale surface. The background does not give a precise distance or horizon. In this loose space the stacks can look briefly like mountains or large fruit before the stalks and snow bring them back to a familiar rural subject. [1]
Hoberg notes that haystacks are unusual within a period when Marc concentrated on animals. She also compares this painting with his earlier, more naturalistic Reed Stacks of 1909. In Haystacks, the colours do more than describe winter light: their separate intensity and the simple repeating forms organise the picture. This is the foundation's interpretation, grounded in its study of the work. [1]
The repetition gives the landscape a quiet rhythm. Compare this non-animal subject with In the Rain, where figures occupy a strongly coloured environment, or with the winter setting of Deer in the Snow. Here the rural objects themselves carry the colour experiment.
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
Three snow-capped haystacks give Marc a subject without animals.
Reader Insights
Observation
Which colours distinguish the stacks from the snow?
Comparison
How does this winter landscape differ from Dog Lying in the Snow?
Interpretation
What creates a sense of life or movement without an animal 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
- Ernst von Siemens Kunststiftung artwork essay. 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, Haystacks in the Snow, about 1911, oil on canvas. Franz Marc Museum, Kochel. Public-domain reproduction, exported at its native 901-pixel width without cropping or colour adjustment. Object record.
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