82.11 Birth of Horses (Tierschicksale: Geburt der Pferde)

1913

Color woodcut, sheet: 11 5/8 x 8 1/2" (29.3 x 21.3 cm); composition: 8 3.8 x 5 3/4" (21.2 x 14.5 cm)

Signed, lr: Fr. Marc; lr: Tierschicksale, ll: no. 2; monogram in print

Provenance: Galerie Voemel, Dusseldorf, April 1934

In March 1913, Marc wrote an enthusiastic letter to Alfred Kubin, presenting his ambitious plans to produce an illustrated Bible and asking if the young Austrian artist would care to contribute. He gave the following description of the project: “Large format, very rich; contributors: Kandinsky, Klee, Heckel, Kokoschka, and myself. Each one his own choice…I’ll tremble with joy if the idea really comes into being!” Kubin completed illustrations for the Book of Daniel, and Kokoschka planned to depict the Book of Job before World War I put an end to the plans. Before he went to the front, Marc completed five color woodcuts of the Story of Creation, intended as part of the cycle of illustrations of the Book Of Genesis for this project. Typically, he chose first to depict the creation of animals: The Birth of Horses, as well as The Birth of Wolves and The Birth of Fabeltiere, or “fabled animals.” The last two works the he completed were entitled simply Schopfungsgeschichte (The Story of Creation). These sheets included animal as well as abstract forms.

Evident in the Birth of Horses is Marc’s confrontation with Delaunay’s idea of fragmented form, as well as his knowledge of the Futurists’ ideas about dynamism and animal vitality. The abstracted background alludes to the chaos out of which life was created. This work is one of the few examples of Marc’s work in the medium of color woodcut. Marc was always more interested in painting than in graphic art, a fact which underlines the importance of color to his aesthetic conception.