Details

Provenance

Private collection, Southern Germany.

Catalog summary

Franz Marc<br>Coloured lithograph on smooth, cream-coloured wove vellum, mounted on Japon paper. (1909/10). C. 84 x 42 cm (sheet c. 92 x 63.5 cm). Another copy in addition to the 7 listed by Hoberg. Rare.<br>Period: Moderne Kunst<br>Technique: Druckgrafik<br>• Large-format poster in vibrant colours • Rare on the art market • Poster for Franz Marc’s first solo exhibition In February 1910, Franz Marc held his first solo exhibition at Brakl’s Modern Art Gallery in Munich. For this, he also designed this exhibition poster featuring two life-size cats. The reviews were positive: “It has been a long time since a painter’s debut here has signalled such a promising display of talent as this!” A few weeks before the opening, a decisive encounter took place, which Marc recounted to his partner Maria Franck on 6 January 1910: “Now I must tell you about an experience I had today, from which I expect many pleasant possibilities. There’s a knock at the door. – Standing at the door are three very young and rather elegant gentlemen. They ask for me. They have seen two lithographs at Brakl’s, […] of which they are so enthusiastic that they want to meet me. […] In any case, pictures cannot be bright and colourful enough for them. […] Perhaps I shall find a circle of intelligent painters here.” (quoted from: Exhibition catalogue Franz Marc 1880–1916, Städtische Galerie im Lehnbachhaus, Munich 1980, p. 26). The visitors were August Macke, who had been living in Tegernsee with his wife Elisabeth since the end of October 1909, his cousin Helmuth, and Bernhard Koehler Jr., son of the Berlin manufacturer of the same name, an art collector and uncle of Macke’s wife. The publisher Reinhard Piper also visited Marc’s exhibition and persuaded him to contribute to his book *Das Tier in der Kunst* (*The Animal in Art*), which was published later that same year.