Cottages on the Dachau Marsh 1902

Franz Marc made this painting, Cottages on the Dachau Marsh, with oil on canvas, and it’s hard to know exactly when. It looks like he’s trying to paint what it *feels* like to be there, maybe more than what it actually looks like. The greens and browns are all smudgy, like he’s trying to mix the colors right on the canvas. I love the way he’s built up the texture, especially in the foreground. You can almost feel the dampness of the marsh. The paint is thick in some spots, almost sculptural. Look at how he’s used these vertical marks to create the trees, they could almost be the bars of a cage. The way he’s handled the light is pretty amazing too. It’s like the sun is trying to peek through the clouds, but the overall mood is still kind of gloomy. It reminds me of some of Van Gogh’s landscapes, but with a bit more of a German Expressionist edge. It's like he’s not just painting a landscape but also trying to capture a feeling, or maybe even a state of mind.