Yellow Cow
Franz Marc, 1911
Yellow Cow is an oil on canvas painted by Franz Marc in 1911, one of the best-known works of the German painter and an example of his interest in depicting animals through an expressionist language. In the foreground, a huge, heavy cow seems to leap across the scene, its head tilted back and its throat exposed. The posture, with the front legs already lifting the weight and the back legs still mid-jump, conveys a kind of movement unusual in Marc's earlier animal images. The coat is painted in several shades of yellow, and only the belly carries a bright bluish-black patch, which sets the animal apart from the rest of the palette.
The background, divided into simple geometric shapes such as triangles and ovals, presents a landscape of reds, greens and bluish tones in which a few grazing cows can barely be made out. The dark tree trunks at the centre, leaning against the animal's direction of motion, steady the composition and form a system of diagonals that Marc regarded as essential. The work reflects his belief that colour should express the emotional world of a subject rather than reproduce nature, and it is often read as an expression of his ideal of animal life free from human control.
- Painter
- Franz Marc
- Date
- 1911
- Medium
- oil paint, canvas
- Dimensions
- 140 × 189 cm
- Museum
- Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York City
- Genre
- animal art
- Depicts
- grass, rock, cattle
More works by Franz Marc
