Blue Horse I

1911

Oil on canvas, 112 × 84.5 cm. Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus und Kunstbau, Munich

With its head bent, the horse fills the front of the picture before rolling pink, violet and yellow hills. Shown close up and on its own, it leaves nothing to compete with its color.

Look for paired opposites: vermilion ground against green plants, and pink-red hills against yellow.
Broad, visible strokes model the body in tones running from pale blue-white to deep blue.
The Lenbachhaus calls it an unusually clear case of Marc's color theory, which he set out in a letter to Macke; the horse takes the color of its essence, the museum's text says, not of its outward look.
A 1965 gift from the Bernhard und Elly Koehler Stiftung brought it to the Lenbachhaus.

Image: Lenbachhaus, Munich · CC0 1.0