Wild Pigs Boar and Sow by Franz Marc

Wild Pigs Boar and Sow is a wildlife painting by Franz Marc. It is not his only painting depicting animals and wildlife - another famous work of his is White Pigs, for instance, which also depicts a group of pigs

Wild Pigs Boar and Sow was painted in 1913, after Marc had spent time travelling throughout France and Greece to gain ideas for his paintings.

Marc studied at art school in Munich at the start of the twentieth century, and whilst he was studying he created several works in a somewhat realist style. Wild Pigs Boar and Sow, however, is a classic example of the Expressionist style for which Marc has since become most famous.

In fact, it is because of paintings such as this that Marc has become known as one of the founding fathers of German Expressionism.

The blue hues used in this painting resonate with much of Marc's other Expressionist work. One of his most famous pieces, Blaues Pferd, or Blue Horse in English, is very much themed around the colour blue.

Blaues Pferd was painted in 1911, as was another similar painting called Die Grossen Blauen Pferde (or The Big Blue Horses). It can certainly be said that the years spanning 1910 to Marc's death in 1916 constituted a 'blue period' in his works: a period in which he explored the potential of the colour blue to resonate with Expressionist themes.

This blue period of Marc's can also be linked to the blue periods of other famous artists. Picasso's blue period, for example, took place between 1901 and 1904. It may be the case that Marc drew his inspiration from Picasso here.