Franz Marc is one of the most popular German Expressionists. He was born on 08.02.1880, in Munich, Germany, died on 04.03.1916 in Braquis on the French World War One front. He studied at the Munich Art Academy in 1900, after he stopped his studies of theology and philosophy. In 1903 he traveled to Paris several times where he saw the work of the Impressionists. When he returned home, he entered a state of deep depression.
This was temporarily cured by a trip which he made to Macedonian region of Salonika and Mount Athos in the spring of 1906, accompanying his brother, who was making a study of Byzantine manuscripts, but returned as soon as he got back to Paris.
In the years between 1906 and 1910, Franc Marc was going through personal crisis as well as searching for the right artistic expression that would take the Impressionism to the next level. The year 1910 marked a significant turning point. In January he met August Macke, who introduced him to Fauvism, and took him to Matisse exhibition in Munich. In February 1911, he met Kandinsky and that was the cornerstone of the creation of the most important German expressionist group – The Blue Rider. Franc Mark was the organizer and the power behind the Blue Rider group and organized successful group exhibitions in the forthcoming period. Around that time, he started painting series of paintings of animals which have been the cornerstone of his reputation. In 1913 he took an important role in selecting and hanging Der Sturm’s First Autumn Salon in Berlin and noted how many of the exhibitors were veering towards abstraction. By the spring оf 1914 Marc’s own work had become virtually abstract. This promising career was cut short by the war. In March 1916 he was killed instantly when he was struck in the head by a shell splinter near Verdun, France. He left behind him some of the most exciting and touching paintings of the Expressionist movement.
