Sleeping Deer by Franz Marc

Looking at Sleeping Deer

A dark deer lies curled near the centre of Franz Marc’s Schlafendes Reh (Sleeping Deer). Its back rises into a broad black-blue arc, and its head tucks down towards the pale shape of its forelegs. Blue and yellow bands cross the foreground; red and green areas fill the space behind. The animal is still, but the setting is made of slanting and overlapping forms that give the small scene a sense of movement. The restored legacy image matches a reproduction catalogued by Artothek as Schlafendes Reh, image 9202. Artothek dates it to 1912/13 and lists the dimensions as 37.8 × 44.8 cm. ^[1]

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.

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▶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

The folded animal and its setting

The body is easiest to find by following the long dark line from the deer's back down towards its nose. A pale strip below it separates the folded animal from the foreground. Other boundaries are less stable: the blue-green areas beside the deer may be read as ground, trees or simply blocks of colour. That uncertainty directs attention back to the animal's compact shape. Its legs do not extend across the scene, and its head turns inward. The composition conveys rest through posture rather than through a detailed description of where the deer sleeps. ^[1]

Even the foreground changes character as it crosses the sheet: blue gives way to yellow, then to a dark oval and red below. These shifts keep the eye moving beneath the quiet figure.

The old page treated each hue as a fixed emotional symbol and read danger into the red area. The reproduction supports a more limited observation. Dark blue strengthens the deer's outline, while warmer colours form part of the space around it. Their contrast can make the body seem sheltered or exposed, depending on which shapes a viewer follows. Neither possibility proves that Marc assigned this particular red patch a message about war or that the yellow necessarily means joy.

What the records do and do not establish

Artothek describes the work as tempera and gives a Feilchenfeldt private collection. A 1963 exhibition publication ^[2] lists a private Schlafendes Reh from 1913 as a watercolour. It has not been possible to establish from that historical listing whether both entries refer to the same physical object, so this page does not force a single medium or assert present ownership. The Artothek dimensions and date are reported as catalogue statements rather than independently verified measurements. ^{[1] [2]}

There is also another Marc work with a closely related title. The Stiftung Sammlung Ziegler identifies its own 1913 sheet as Rotes Reh (Schlafendes Reh). Its image shows a different arrangement from the dark curled deer discussed here. The Ziegler record should not be used to supply this page's medium, dimensions or custody. Distinguishing same-title works keeps the close reading attached to the object discussed on this route. The original site photograph is shown here for comparison; its exact source and reuse rights remain unverified, and the drawing card remains held. ^{[3] [1]}