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 Wild Boars in the Water
Dark boars gather at a shallow blue pool beneath a broad brown bank. Some lower their snouts; others stand with their backs forming a low rhythm across the page. Franz Marc made Wild Boars in the Water (Wildschweine am Wasser) around 1910–11. The Guggenheim Museum records it as a small work in watercolour, gouache and ink on paper, accession 48.1190. It measures only 10.2 × 15.9 cm, but the group fills the sheet. [1] [2]
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The boars are painted with dark, economical strokes. Their bodies form overlapping arcs, while flashes of pale blue water make their legs and snouts easier to separate. The reddish bank behind them closes the space. Rather than modelling every detail of fur, Marc gives weight through broad washes and the black lines of backs and heads. The small scale and water-based materials distinguish this sheet from his large oil canvases of 1911–13. [1]
The museum's image shows the whole sheet, including its irregular edges and marks. That matters for a work often reproduced as a tightly cropped animal scene. On the full page, the animals occupy a band between water and bank; the unpainted or lightly washed margin makes their dark forms feel concentrated. The exact museum-uploaded file is dedicated CC0, which permits this page to show the complete identified object rather than depend on an untraced older reproduction. [1]
Compare this gathering with Marc's later Red Bull or The Little Monkey. Each has an animal subject, but the ways space and colour organise those subjects differ. Here the boars' shared dark movement around water is the image's main event. Slow looking reveals individual heads within what first appears to be one almost continuous group. [1] [3]
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 boars form a low dark rhythm beside a shallow blue pool.
Reader Insights
Observation
Which repeated back or snout gives the group its rhythm?
Comparison
How does this scene differ from Wild Pigs, Boar and Sow?
Interpretation
What does the small pool contribute to the grouping?
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 record on Wikimedia Commons. View source.
- Guggenheim collection lead. View source.
- Lenbachhaus, The Little Monkey. 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, Wild Boars in the Water, about 1910–11, watercolour, gouache and ink on paper. Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, 48.1190. Museum-uploaded image CC0 1.0. Image file and rights.
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