Nude with Cat 1910

Franz Marc made this painting, titled Nude with Cat, using oil on canvas. There is a rawness in the application of paint, the forms outlined with these energetic marks, thick and thin, with a loaded brush, that feels really intimate. Marc has used a palette of colours which feel earthy and bodily, but that jolt of high pitched yellow in the cat tells you everything you need to know about him as a colourist. I mean, just look at how those strokes describe the cat’s fur, it's alive! What really strikes me is the mark-making around the nude's torso, the way the planes of flesh are suggested with these almost arbitrary daubs, but the overall effect is powerfully solid. Marc is an artist who really makes you believe in the power of paint to summon feeling. I’m reminded of Emil Nolde, who like Marc, was trying to dig into something primordial with his expressionistic brush. Neither artist is trying to make you feel comfortable. I think that's the point.