After his death, all art critics will declare that if he lived longer, the world collection of unique paintings of the early twentieth century. replenished with millions of treasures. Give them free rein, they would isolate all talented painters from the world and force them to work day and night. Franz Marc drew inspiration from the surrounding reality. Denying evil, he himself became its victim.
Childhood and youth
The father of the future artist was still a rebel. Men of the Markov family have worked in the field of jurisprudence from century to century, and Wilhelm went against tradition. He devoted his life to painting. When in February 1880 his wife gave him a second son, he vowed not to force the child to anything and to fully develop his talents. The youngest boy was named Franz and he spent his childhood in Munich, watching a parent work in his workshop.
While still in high school, the teenager loved to talk about the meaning of life. It was decided to continue his education at the University of Munich in the direction of philosophy and theology. The student took a break from attending lectures, joining military service. Mark was not destined to become a general - like all free-thinkers, he did not accept harsh discipline, and only affection for horses became a good memory of the army.
The beginning of the creative path
Having got rid of the uniform, Franz realized that he wanted to follow in his father's footsteps. In 1900 he entered the Munich Academy of Arts. Three years later, a trip to Paris was organized for the students of the painting course. There the young man got acquainted with the works of Manet, Cézanne and Gauguin. He was no longer attracted to work on canvases that would be liked by potential buyers, he dropped out of school. In order not to quarrel with his parents, the young man rented an apartment in the Schwabing quarter, where the bohemian lived, and plunged headlong into the world of expressionism.
Animals became Franz Marc's models. They attracted him with their natural grace and openness. The painter sought inspiration by watching cats, dogs, pigeons in the streets, and often visited the zoo. In his early canvases, there are no animals in cages - he depicted an ideal free life. How strikingly different he was from his older brother Papul, who was making a scientific career.
In searching of love
The artist's personal life was far from ideal. His colleague Annette von Eckardt turned his head. The lady was married, and an amorous adventure with a youth was supposed to decorate her gray everyday life. It ended, leaving Franz disheartened. The servant of the muses did not have to grieve for a long time alone - two Marias - Shnyur and Frank, took a place in his heart. In the love triangle, the master was looking for inspiration.
Two women on the mountain (1906). Franz Marc artist
It is not forbidden to have an affair with two women in a bohemian environment at once, but you will not go down the aisle with such a company. Franz Marc had to make a choice. In 1907 he took Maria Shnyur to the altar. After the honeymoon, the couple broke up, and a divorce was soon filed. The artist remembered his rejected girlfriend, in 1911 he legalized his relationship with her. Maria Frank was also engaged in painting, but after the wedding she preferred the role of the keeper of the hearth.
The Blue Rider
An active participation in the life of Munich's bohemians made Franz Marc a center of attraction for like-minded people. In the 1910s. he met the expressionist August Macke and the abstractionist Wassily Kandinsky. With a guest from Russia in one of the cafes in Munich, Mark started a conversation about how great it would be to unite extraordinary people of art from different countries into one group. The name for the society was invented right there - "The Blue Rider". It was in 1911.
The association was engaged in organizing exhibitions, published its own almanac, and Mark supervised its work. A year after the founding of the Blue Rider, its leader met Robert Delaunay, who preached a new approach to painting. Under the influence of this French experimenter, Franz wrote a number of works in a manner unusual for him. Sometimes he even said that the age of expressionists had come to an end, it was time to look for new forms.
World War I
Closer to 1914, disturbing motives began to appear on Mark's canvases. The master portrayed dying animals, or their refuge in a deaf forest. The difficult political situation and the abundance of militaristic slogans oppressed him. When the First World War began, the talented painter volunteered for the front. He wanted to make his contribution to Germany's victory over the enemy. Neither the pacifist aspirations of his philosophy, nor the presence of friends - citizens of the states to which the Kaiser declared war, did not stop him.
With arms in hand, it was not only Mark who left to fight for the interests of Germany, but also his friend Makke. Poor Augustus in the first year of the war received an order and a bullet in the forehead. Franz was one of the lucky ones - death bypassed him. True, he managed to get a good look at her and wrote letters home full of hatred for the bloody massacre. Sometimes there were sketches for new paintings in envelopes. Fatal for the painter was the battle for the famous Verdun ledge. The successful offensive of the German army and the capture of a number of French forts, due to the lack of reserves, turned into a disaster. In 1916, Franz Marc was mortally wounded during another shelling by shrapnel.
Franz Marc's tragic biography is typical of the generation that matured by the beginning of the First World War. Hundreds of people of art went to the trenches, hoping to benefit the Fatherland, many did not return. Those who managed to survive came out with condemnation of militarism from themselves and from their fallen comrades.
