Gazelles 1913

Franz Marc made this painting, Gazelles, at some point, we don't know when. What strikes me is how Marc approaches these gazelles, not as things to be copied, but as starting points for a conversation in paint. The colours are like feelings, blues and greens for coolness, yellows and oranges for warmth. See how the animals are built from these colours, not outlined but felt into being? The paint itself has a life. It's thick in some places, thin in others, like he's letting the medium do some of the work. There’s a lovely orange curve of a back meeting a slender leg in the foreground: a single brushstroke and a whole gazelle takes shape, both fragile and powerful. Like Kandinsky, Marc believed art could touch the spiritual. These gazelles aren't just animals; they're stand-ins for something deeper, the hidden rhythms of nature maybe. The beauty of a painting like this is that it doesn’t give you all the answers. It invites you to look, to feel, and to wonder.