Blue Horse I
1911 · Oil on canvas · Lenbachhaus, Munich
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About this work
- Artist
- Franz Marc (1880–1916)
- Year
- 1911
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Original size
- 112 × 84.5 cm
- Collection
- Lenbachhaus, Munich
- Movement
- Expressionism
A young blue horse stands facing the viewer with its head tilted to one side, its body modelled in light blue with white highlights and its mane and hooves in dark navy, against hills of red, violet, yellow and green under a blue sky. The colours are not those of nature but carry meaning: in Marc's colour theory, set out in a letter to August Macke in 1910, blue stood for the masculine and spiritual, yellow for the gentle and feminine, and red for heavy, brutal matter. He painted it in 1911, the year he and Kandinsky formed the Blue Rider, working up a postcard-sized pencil sketch of a young horse in a mountain landscape. The painting belonged to the Berlin collector Bernhard Koehler, Marc's patron, and came to the Lenbachhaus in Munich from the Bernhard Koehler Foundation in 1965.
This full-bleed edition prints the work edge to edge from a high-resolution scan of the original, very slightly cropped (a few percent at most) to fit the sheet. The gallery edition shows the whole work, uncropped. The original is in the public domain.
Where it works
A blue foal against hills of red, violet, yellow and green, for a child's room, nursery or playroom at 24×32 in natural wood. A white, sky blue or soft yellow wall; it pairs with The Tiger.
Style, size & framing detail
- Style
- Expressionism painting
- Era
- 20th century (1911)
- Orientation
- Portrait
- Mood
- classic
- Rooms
- nursery, kids room, living room, dining room
- Good gift for
- housewarming, art lovers
Size. We'd hang this one at 24×32. Prints at 12×16, 18×24, 24×32 in — 12×16 for a shelf, desk or a gallery-wall grid; 18×24 above a desk, console or in a hallway; 24×32 as the statement piece above a sofa or bed.
Framing. Printed edge to edge: a slim black or natural wood frame right to the image, or let the canvas wrap do the framing.
Pairing. Pairs as a set of three with other famous painting prints (10% off three or more).
Details & materials
Shipping & returns
Is this the whole painting, or a crop?
Is Blue Horse I in the public domain?
What is it printed on?
When was Blue Horse I painted, and in what medium?
What size works above a sofa or bed?
About this design
The Madten promise
An exhibition poster
The same artwork as a gallery exhibition poster — title, artist & date typeset beneath the image on a soft ground.
A fine-art print
The same artwork as a clean fine-art print — the image shown large with a minimal caption.






























