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 Nude with Cat
A red-haired woman bends towards a small yellow cat at her feet. Her body, the striped carpet and the coloured space behind her are joined by lively red, green, blue and yellow marks. Franz Marc painted Nude with Cat (Akt mit Katze) in 1910. It is an important counterpoint to pages that present him only as an animal painter: human figure and animal meet within one experiment in colour. The Lenbachhaus holds the canvas as G 12762. [1]
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Watch on YouTubeFigure, cat and carpet
The oil painting measures 88.6 × 82.4 cm. The crouching figure occupies much of its nearly square field, while the small cat draws her attention downward. Bright contour lines model her body; the diagonals of the carpet carry colour across the lower picture and tie figure to setting. The Lenbachhaus points to green reflections on her face and the vivid red of her hair. The cat is small, but the gesture towards it gives the picture its relationship and title. [1]
The museum connects Marc’s freer use of colour with his encounter with August Macke and with the French painting they saw in a Matisse exhibition at Galerie Thannhauser. It relates the work particularly to Fauvism’s bold handling of colour. This is a historical interpretation of influence, not a claim that Nude with Cat copies a specific Matisse canvas. The picture still has Marc’s own balance of close figure, little animal and patterned floor. [1]
The Lenbachhaus acquired the painting in 1960. Its catalogue notes that Marc made many female nude studies in sketchbooks through 1910–11, some in Sindelsdorf with Maria Franck, his later wife, as a model. The museum text gives that broader studio context but does not identify the sitter in this canvas with certainty; this page does not supply a name. [1]
The cat is a way into the painting’s movement. Its little body anchors the woman’s bend, while the carpet’s bright diagonals pull both into a larger design. Marc could investigate the relation between living beings and setting without making the animal the largest thing in view.
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
A red-haired woman bends toward a small yellow cat within a patterned room.
Reader Insights
Observation
Which lines join the figure to the cat and carpet?
Comparison
How does this human-and-animal scene differ from the outdoor Bathing Girls?
Interpretation
What does the colour add to an otherwise domestic moment?
Join the Conversation
Which detail changed the way you saw this work? Share a close observation or a comparison with another Marc picture.
References
- Lenbachhaus, Akt mit Katze. 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, Nude with Cat, 1910, oil on canvas. Lenbachhaus, Munich, G 12762. Image CC0 1.0. Object record.
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