Franz Marc painted The Large Blue Horses in 1911. The oil on canvas belongs to the Walker Art Center, which acquired it in 1942. Three closely grouped blue horses fill much of the composition, surrounded by plants, slender pale trunks, and a landscape organized into broad areas of red, yellow, and green.
The horses' bowed heads and rounded backs repeat one another, establishing a rhythm across the foreground. Similar curves continue into the hills behind them, while upright trunks interrupt the flow. The colors do not imitate ordinary daylight. Instead, strong differences between blue bodies and warmer surroundings help bind the animals into a single, emphatic group.
Marc and Kandinsky were central figures in the Blue Rider circle, whose work investigated the expressive potential of color. The Walker's history of the painting records how reproductions and exhibitions helped it reach a wide audience. Seen alongside more fully abstract work, it demonstrates how recognizable natural subjects can support a composition driven by simplified form and expressive color.
Composition 8 by Vasily Kandinsky
