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 Blue Horses before a Red Rock
Two blue horses rest close together at the foot of a high red rock. Green grass and a pale border make the colours feel even more concentrated. This is an illustrated postcard, about 14 × 9 cm, sent by Franz Marc from Sindelsdorf to Wassily Kandinsky in Munich on 21 May 1913. Its size and journey are part of the work’s identity. It is neither a photograph of a large painting nor the same object as Marc’s earlier Blue Horse I or Blue Horse II. [1]
Watch: Franz Marc
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Franz Marc, Blue Horses and Der Blaue Reiter
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The horses are paired, their heads lifted in different directions while their bodies settle into the same low shape. The red rock rises behind them in broad, broken marks. Yellow and pale brown soften its edges; greens at the base keep the animals from floating free of the ground. On a postcard, Marc could make a complete image with a handful of strong relationships. The blue animals and red background are opposites, yet the curves of backs, necks and rock bind them into a compact scene. [1]
The card belongs to the documented exchange between Marc and Kandinsky, co-editors of Der Blaue Reiter. A small, personal image could travel directly to a colleague. That context does not turn the horses into a private code whose meaning we can recover from colour alone. The object itself tells us who sent it, to whom, from where, and when; the painted side still asks us to look at form and colour. [1] [2]
The Lenbachhaus catalogues the card as GMS 742 and provides a full image of the illustrated side. Compare that small sheet with Marc’s larger horse paintings to see the shared motif, but keep their media and dates separate. The postcard is a finished act of making and sending, preserved as both correspondence and a work on paper. [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 blue horses rest against a red rock on a small painted postcard.
Reader Insights
Observation
How do the horses’ bodies echo one another?
Comparison
How does this intimate study differ from Large Blue Horses?
Interpretation
What does the postcard format add to your reading of the image?
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, Two Blue Horses before a Red Rock. View source.
- Lenbachhaus, Blue Rider history. 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, Two Blue Horses before a Red Rock, postcard to Wassily Kandinsky, 21 May 1913. Lenbachhaus, Munich, GMS 742. Image CC0 1.0. Object record.
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