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 The Sheep
A pale sheep lowers its head amid broad arcs and sharply angled colour. Its body is nearly absorbed into the landscape, but a dark eye and the bend of its neck keep the animal visible. Franz Marc painted The Sheep (Das Schaf) in 1913–14. Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam holds the oil canvas as accession 1575 (MK). The local route's shorter title “Lamb” does not establish the animal's age; the museum's title identifies it simply as a sheep. [1]
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Watch on YouTubeWhere sheep meets landscape
The painting measures 54.5 × 77 cm. Pale yellow and green curves shape the animal, while blue arcs, rose-red and darker outlines make an active setting around it. The museum describes a rhythmic interplay of line and colour in which sheep and landscape almost fuse. The eye can test that description by following the upper curve of the back into nearby hills, then returning to the face and lowered head. The animal remains legible even as its outline participates in the whole design. [1]
Marc's Deer in the Snow II offers another animal shaped with its environment. There, white banks and warm deer create an exchange of curves; here the sheep's pale body seems to belong to a more fractured field of colour. Neither picture is merely a lesson in symbolic meanings. They show how Marc could make an animal and its setting occupy the same visual rhythm in different ways. [1] [2]
The painting entered the Rotterdam collection in 1936 from the estate of Marie Tak van Poortvliet, whose name appears in the museum's acquisition record. That route and accession separate Das Schaf from Marc's other sheep drawings, prints and postcards. Look again at the animal's eye: it anchors a creature that might otherwise dissolve into curves of landscape and colour. [1]
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 sheep’s pale body nearly merges with the surrounding colour.
Reader Insights
Observation
Which eye or neck line keeps the animal visible?
Comparison
How does this single sheep differ from the paired sheep in Sheep?
Interpretation
What does the uncertain boundary between body and setting add?
Join the Conversation
Which detail changed the way you saw this work? Share a close observation or a comparison with another Marc picture.
References
- Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Das Schaf. View source.
- Lenbachhaus, Deer in the Snow II. 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, The Sheep, 1913–14, oil on canvas. Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam, 1575 (MK). Object record. Image: Google Art Project file via Wikimedia Commons, faithful public-domain reproduction; resized without crop or colour adjustment.
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