Cows, Red, Green, Yellow
1912 · Oil on canvas · Lenbachhaus, Munich
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About this work
- Artist
- Franz Marc (1880–1916)
- Year
- 1912
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Original size
- 62 × 88 cm
- Collection
- Lenbachhaus, Munich
- Movement
- Expressionism
A yellow cow with black patches leaps and kicks across the canvas, its head lowered toward a red cow lying beside it, while a third cow in deep green stands behind them among rounded hills of blue, violet and green. The animals are drawn in flowing curves that echo the landscape, and the colours are pure and unnatural. Marc painted it in 1912 in Sindelsdorf, the Bavarian village where he lived from 1910 to 1914, and the colours of the title follow his symbolic scheme, in which yellow stood for the gentle and cheerful, red for heavy matter and blue for the spiritual. The picture shows the joyful side of his animal paintings before the darker works of 1913. It is in the Lenbachhaus in Munich.
This exhibition-poster edition shows the whole work beneath original typography set in-house. The original is in the public domain.
Where it works
A leaping yellow cow with a red and a green cow among blue and violet hills, for a child's room, kitchen or playroom at 16×24 in natural wood. A cream, butter-yellow or sage wall; it pairs with The Little Monkey.
Style, size & framing detail
- Style
- Exhibition poster of a Expressionism painting
- Era
- 20th century (1912)
- Orientation
- Portrait
- Palette
- butter yellow, cream & beige
- Mood
- classic
- Rooms
- kitchen, kids room, living room, dining room, dorm room
- Good gift for
- housewarming, art lovers
Size. We'd hang this one at 16×24. Prints at 12×18, 16×24, 24×36 in — 12×18 for a shelf, desk or a gallery-wall grid; 16×24 above a desk, console or in a hallway; 24×36 as the statement piece above a sofa or bed.
Framing. Exhibition posters sit best in a slim black frame with no mat — the typeset margin is the mat.
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 Cows, Red, Green, Yellow in the public domain?
What is it printed on?
When was Cows, Red, Green, Yellow painted, and in what medium?
What size works above a sofa or bed?
About this design
The Madten promise
A fine-art print
The same artwork as a clean fine-art print — the image shown large with a minimal caption.
