Dream by Franz Marc

Originally created as an oil on canvas, Marc created The Dream Painting whilst residing in the quiet village of Sindelsdorf in 1912. This vivid piece of art fills the canvas and provides a visual feast for the eyes and intuition

The Dream painting demonstrates Marc's maturity as an artist, his distinctive style and use expressive, bold colours.

The painting itself is fascinating. It appears to be a night scene as the background sky is painted dark. The naked cross-legged female form seems to be asleep and surrounded by animals, mostly horses which Marc frequently painted.

It has been suggested that Marc's use of a naked female could have been influenced by Gauguin's Tahitian scenes and Marc was certainly influenced by the Italian futurists with his use of the lines of force that radiate from the central figure.

While the woman and the animals could be about Marc's aspirations for spiritual harmony between humans and nature, the house may symbolize the real world. Marc was known to use colour symbolically.

The blue of the horses suggest masculinity, yellow suggests femininity whilst the red is suggestive of violence and needs to be combated.

This particular painting was given to the artist Kandinsky, who gave Franz Marc one of his own paintings (Improvisation 12) in return. After Marc died in the trenches of World War I in 1916, his wife Maria insisted it should be shown at an exhibition in Munich and Wiesbaden in 1916 to mark his death.

The Dream Painting was shown in New York and other cities around the USA in 1926 and 1927.

This beautiful Dream Painting by Franz Marc is both captivating and enchanting. The Dream will continue to fascinate and perplex the viewer.