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 The Unfortunate Land of Tyrol
Franz Marc painted The Unfortunate Land of Tyrol (Das arme Land Tirol) in 1913 after travelling through South Tyrol with Maria Franck. The large oil painting, about 131 × 200 cm, belongs to the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York (46.1040). Its bleak mountains and thin, dark horses make it a very different picture from the bright animal groups for which Marc is often known. [1] [2]
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Watch on YouTubeA landscape under pressure
Two black horses cross the lower centre of the scene. Their lowered heads and narrow bodies stand before steep slopes, scattered buildings and sharp bands of colour. A small cemetery with crosses appears behind them; a striped border marker stands at the right edge. Above, a bird and a curved dark shape cut across a restless sky. The mountains seem to press into the settlement rather than recede peacefully behind it. Marc makes the animals vulnerable within a place that is itself fractured. [1] [3]
The Franz Marc Museum relates the picture to the couple’s 1913 visit to Maria’s father in a Merano sanatorium. It also reads the starving horses, cemetery and border sign against the Balkan Wars and tensions on Europe’s borders. That context gives the painting a historical edge, though it does not make it a literal map of a battle or a prediction of the First World War. Its unease is already visible in the way the horses, slopes and buildings crowd one another. [1]
Marc returned to Tyrolean subjects in the separate 1914 painting Tyrol. That work has no horses and moves further toward angular landscape and religious imagery. The two pictures share a journey and a troubled mood, but their objects and compositions should be kept distinct. [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 dark horses move through a landscape of mountains, buildings, crosses and border marks.
Reader Insights
Observation
Which detail first makes this landscape feel unsettled?
Comparison
How do these horses differ from the group in Large Red Horses?
Interpretation
How does the 1913 border marker change the way you read the scene?
Join the Conversation
Which detail changed the way you saw this work? Share a close observation or a comparison with another Marc picture.
References
- Franz Marc Museum, “Between Idyll and Doom”. View source.
- Guggenheim object record. View source.
- public-domain full-image reproduction. 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, The Unfortunate Land of Tyrol, 1913, oil on canvas, about 131 × 200 cm. Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, 46.1040. Public-domain faithful reproduction, resized without crop or colour adjustment. Image file and rights.
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