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 Horses
The two horses on this page are Marc's Zwei Pferde of 1913, a work in tempera and gouache on paper measuring 39.2 × 45.4 cm. Christie's records the sheet, its signature and dedication, and its earlier sale history. The reproduction catalogued on Wikimedia Commons came from that lot record and matches this page's former image. The shared title is not enough to identify a Marc work on its own: he also made drawings, a bronze sculpture and other painted horse pairs. [1] [2]
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Watch on YouTubeA close pair in a broken landscape
The nearer horse curls across the foreground, its pale face dropping toward the lower right. Behind it, another horse turns its head toward the first. Their dark manes and curved necks make the pair legible, while blue, white, yellow and red strokes split the surrounding space into steep facets. The horses are close together but not mirror images: one body bends low and broad, the other rises behind it. A slanting line at the right seems to continue the angle of the nearer horse's head.
The work's paper support and opaque water-based colour are important. It is neither an oil painting nor a simple preliminary pencil sketch. Marc used quick-looking strokes of dense colour to join the horses with the sharp landscape. The blue at the left and above the heads moves between animal, shadow and background; it cannot be assigned to only one object. Christie's notes the related effort to merge animal and landscape in Marc's work of 1913, an interpretation the visible overlapping forms support without requiring every colour to stand for a fixed idea. [1]
Compare the more open grazing arrangement of Small Horse Picture. There, two bodies remain distinct on yellow-green ground. Here the horses and angled surroundings nearly lock into one structure. The 1913 work is also distinct from the similarly titled 1908–09 bronze in the Lenbachhaus collection [3]. The Christie's record establishes the object's medium and size; this page does not claim its current private owner is known.
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 paired horses almost lock into the angular landscape around them.
Reader Insights
Observation
Which marks separate the nearer horse from the one behind?
Comparison
How does this close pair differ from the grazing horses in Small Horse Picture?
Interpretation
Where does the blue belong to animal, shadow or surrounding space?
Join the Conversation
Which detail changed the way you saw this work? Share a close observation or a comparison with another Marc picture.
References
- Christie's, lot 3866897. View source.
- Wikimedia Commons, exact file. View source.
- Lenbachhaus collection. 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, Zwei Pferde (Two Horses), 1913, tempera and gouache on paper, 39.2 × 45.4 cm. Public-domain reproduction from Wikimedia Commons, retained at native width. Object record.
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