Franz Marc, Fabulous animals 1, 1913

Fabulous Animals I (1913) by Franz Marc is a striking example of his visionary approach during the peak of German Expressionism and the Der Blaue Reiter movement. Painted just one year before his death in World War I, the work reflects Marc’s deep symbolic use of animals as embodiments of purity, spiritual truth, and the forces of nature—far removed from what he saw as the moral corruption of modern industrial society.

In Fabulous Animals I, Marc abandons naturalistic representation in favor of dynamic, dreamlike forms that verge on the mythical. The animals—often interpreted as a fusion of horses, deer, and fantastical creatures—are constructed from angular facets and vivid color planes. This style reflects both Marc’s fascination with Cubism and his growing push toward abstraction. The creatures appear interlocked within a crystalline landscape, their bodies merging with shards of color that suggest rocks, trees, and energetic forces pulsing through the environment.

Color plays a powerful symbolic role. Marc believed blue signified the spiritual and masculine, yellow the feminine and joyful, and red the violent, material world. In this painting, these colors collide, overlap, and vibrate. The brilliant blues and greens convey tranquility and inner harmony, while the reds inject tension and vitality. These opposing elements give the composition a sense of cosmic struggle—suggesting not a scene of literal animals, but an allegory of spiritual life.

The creatures themselves feel both monumental and otherworldly. Their bodies bend and twist rhythmically, as if responding to unseen energies. The faceted geometry creates a sense of movement, as though they might step forward or dissolve back into the shimmering landscape at any moment. The absence of sharp boundaries between figures and environment reflects Marc’s belief in the unity of all living beings.

Fabulous Animals I captures Franz Marc at a moment of intense creativity, blending expressionist emotion with symbolic mysticism. It stands as one of his most imaginative explorations of a world where animals embody the deeper, harmonic truths he sought in art.