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
Two blue horses fill almost the whole sheet in Franz Marc’s Two Blue Horses. One raises its pale head on the left; the other turns its head across the foreground. Dark outlines bind their bodies to blue and green shapes behind them. The Guggenheim Museum identifies this work as a 1913 watercolour and ink on paper, 20 × 13.3 cm, in its Founding Collection, accession 38.529. The museum itself uploaded the image used here to Wikimedia Commons. [1]
Watch: Franz Marc
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Franz Marc, Blue Horses and Der Blaue Reiter
An English-language introduction to Marc’s blue horses, animals, spirituality and the Blue Rider.
Watch on YouTubeTwo bodies in a small space
The nearer horse is made from a broad blue back, a dark neck and a lightly coloured face. The horse behind it reaches upward, its pale muzzle set against the darker hills. Their forms overlap so closely that it takes a moment to separate the two. At the top, pointed blue peaks continue the angular rhythm of the ears and necks; near the bottom, red curling marks interrupt the green ground. The thin paper edge is visible around the image, making its compact scale easier to grasp than in a tight crop. [1]
Marc returned often to blue horses, but the title alone is not enough to identify this sheet. It is a small watercolour and ink work, rather than the large 1911 oil painting The Large Blue Horses or the 1913 illustrated postcard Two Blue Horses before a Red Rock. The close view of two heads and bodies also differs from the three-horse arrangement in The Little Blue Horses. [1] [2]
The contrast between coloured bodies and dark drawn lines gives this intimate sheet much of its force. It lets the animals remain recognisable while the landscape begins to share their shapes. See Marc’s drawings and works on paper for more ways he developed animal forms beyond oil painting.
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 overlapping horses and blue peaks fill this small sheet with closely related shapes.
Reader Insights
Observation
Which lines help you separate the two horses?
Comparison
How does this sheet differ from the larger painting of three blue horses?
Interpretation
Where does the landscape begin to echo the animals’ bodies?
Join the Conversation
Which detail changed the way you saw this work? Share a close observation or a comparison with another Marc picture.
References
- Guggenheim Museum-uploaded object image and catalogue data. View source.
- Lenbachhaus, Two Blue Horses before a Red Rock. 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, 1913, watercolour and ink on paper, 20 × 13.3 cm. Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, 38.529. Museum-uploaded image CC0 1.0. Image file and rights.
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