Horse in a Landscape

1910

Oil on canvas, 85 × 112 cm. Museum Folkwang, Essen

A red horse with a blue mane stands with its back to us, looking out over yellow fields toward blue-green hills. The museum suggests the pose may echo Caspar David Friedrich's Wanderer above the Sea of Fog, another figure seen from behind.

Look at the edges: the frame cuts off the horse, and the land rises with no horizon line.
Broad zones of strong color sit side by side, with red and blue set straight against yellow.
The viewer shares the animal's view rather than studying it: the landscape it faces, more than its body, becomes the subject.
The Folkwang bought it in 1953; where it was between 1937 and 1953 is still being researched.

Image: Wikimedia Commons · PD-Art