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 Wolves (Balkan War)
Several wolves move through a broken landscape in Franz Marc’s The Wolves (Balkan War) (Die Wölfe (Balkankrieg)). The Buffalo AKG Art Museum identifies it as a 1913 oil painting, 70.8 × 139.7 cm, accession 1951:1. Its unusually wide format sets the animals among sharp hills, a green flame-like form and turbulent colour. The parenthetical title connects the painting to the Balkan conflicts of 1912–13, but the scene is an image made from animals and landscape, not a literal record of a particular battle. [1]
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Look first for the wolves’ long backs and pointed heads. Their bodies echo the diagonal slopes around them, so the landscape seems to participate in their movement. Purple and dark blue areas press against hotter reds and a vivid green. Near the lower edge, small flowers are easy to miss. These details make the composition more complicated than a simple procession of predators: the animals, plants and terrain all appear caught in the same upheaval. [1]
The museum relates the painting to the Balkan War, a conflict Marc and his contemporaries followed from elsewhere in Europe. Reading the wolves as signs of violence is therefore supported by the title and the museum’s interpretation. It is still worth distinguishing that historical context from a claim that every colour or animal stands for a named country. The painting does not supply a one-to-one key. [1]
Marc’s late animal paintings sometimes turn natural forms into angular structures. Compare the way bodies and setting merge here with The Fate of the Animals or the compressed space of Deer in the Forest I. The wolves remain recognisable, yet their movement gains force from the unsettled world around them. [1] [2]
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
Wolves move through a broken landscape in this unusually tense 1913 painting.
Reader Insights
Observation
Which wolf can you follow most clearly through the colour?
Comparison
How does this tension differ from the calm group in Large Blue Horses?
Interpretation
How should the subtitle Balkan War guide a reading without settling it?
Join the Conversation
Which detail changed the way you saw this work? Share a close observation or a comparison with another Marc picture.
References
- Buffalo AKG object record. View source.
- Phillips Collection, Deer in the Forest I. 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 Wolves (Balkan War), 1913, oil on canvas. Buffalo AKG Art Museum, 1951:1. Image: Wikimedia Commons, public domain / PD-Art, resized without crop or colour adjustment. Object record.
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