Franz Marc was a German painter and a central figure in Expressionism, as well as a co-founder of the artist group Der Blaue Reiter. He grew up in Munich in an artistic and religious household and initially studied theology and philosophy before choosing art in 1900.

After traveling to Paris, he was strongly influenced by artists such as Vincent van Gogh and developed a colorful, simplified style. His subjects often depict animals, which he saw as freer and closer to the spiritual than humans.

Marc used color symbolically—blue for the spiritual and masculine, yellow for the feminine, and red for the material—and allowed animals and landscapes to merge into rhythmic, almost abstract compositions. Together with Wassily Kandinsky, he worked to give art a deeper, spiritual dimension.

In his final years, his style became increasingly abstract, but his career was cut short when he was killed in the Battle of Verdun in 1916 at the age of just 36.