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 Two Bathing Girls
Two women pause at the edge of water in Franz Marc’s Bathing Women (Nude Composition II). One sits on the bank with her back turned; the other bends forward in the shallows, looking down toward her hands. The pale yellow ground, water and skin nearly meet in colour. Small green strokes at their feet and blue-grey marks in the water keep the figures anchored to a place, even as their outlines soften. The Berlin Nationalgalerie catalogues the work under the German title Badende Frauen (Aktkomposition II) and records Badende Mädchen and Zwei badende Frauen as alternate titles. “Two Bathing Girls” is the inherited title of this page, not a separate painting. [1] [2]
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Marc made this tempera painting on cardboard in 1909. It measures 63 × 53 cm, a modest upright format that allows both figures to occupy most of the surface. The seated woman forms a broad curve along the lower left. The figure at right bends inward, her shoulders and arms circling above the water. Their poses lead the eye toward the small space between them, but neither woman looks directly at the viewer. The marked bank in the foreground and the pale horizontal band behind them give the scene a loose sense of depth. [1]
The museum observes how light areas of the figures’ skin take on the colour of the water, while shaded passages approach the colour of the shore. That close relationship is visible in the painting itself. Warm ochres and faint blues pass from body to setting, rather than separating the women with hard, continuous outlines. The result is quieter than the strong colour contrasts often associated with Marc’s later animal paintings. It is useful to look at the actual relationships among marks and colours here, without assigning each hue a fixed symbolic meaning. [1]
An early work with a long history
In 1910 the painting appeared for sale in Marc’s first solo exhibition at the Munich art dealer Brakl. It later belonged to the collector Alfred Hess. The Berlin provenance research traces its passage through the Hess family, including its transfer to England as the family faced Nazi persecution. The record does not establish every movement with equal certainty, so a simple, uninterrupted ownership story would be misleading. Berlin acquired the work in 1963, and it has been held at the Nationalgalerie since 1968 as a permanent loan from the state of Berlin. [1] [2]
Marc would soon make animals the subjects of many of his best known works. This scene shows him studying the meeting of bodies and landscape through closely related colours before those later paintings. Its significance lies in what it actually presents: two bathers whose forms emerge from, and almost return to, the light around them. [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
Two women and the pale water around them share closely related colours.
Reader Insights
Observation
Where does the edge of each figure become difficult to separate from the water or bank?
Comparison
How does this 1909 scene differ from the Bathing Girls at the Norton Simon Museum?
Interpretation
What do the inward poses let you notice without assuming the women’s thoughts?
Join the Conversation
Which detail changed the way you saw this work? Share a close observation or a comparison with another Marc picture.
References
- Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, object B 602. View source.
- Galerie des 20. Jahrhunderts provenance dossier. 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, Bathing Women (Nude Composition II), 1909, tempera on cardboard, 63 × 53 cm. Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin, B 602. Museum photograph by Jörg P. Anders, Public Domain Mark 1.0. Image file and rights.
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