The Yellow Cow

by

Franz Marc 1880-1917

Franz Marc devoted himself

almost exclusively to

painting animals in

nature.

In 1911 Franz Marc married a lady called Maria Frank. Maria had a happy personality. The frolicking yellow cow may be a symbol of Maria Frank.

The triangular blue mountains in the background could represent Marc. Notice that the cow is in the shape of a smile and that Franz Marc has placed diagonal lines behind the cow to give the picture a more energetic feeling.

Franz Marc believed that

animals were pure in nature, not like people who are capable of doing

terrible things. Dog Lying in the Snow 1910.

Marc developed a theory of colour Symbolism.

Fighting Forms 1914.

For Marc, different colors could represent different emotions.

What emotions do you think his paintings convey?

Look at the images that appear and try and place an emotion with each one.

The Lamb 1914.The fate of Animals 1913Foxes 1913

The Tiger 1914

At the time that these works were painted World War one was taking place. This war effected millions of people and for the first time many people were touched by the senseless killing of so many innocent people on such a large scale.

Marc not only used colors to symbolised emotion he used the

animals themselves to symbolise aspects of

peoples personalities to show how people felt in

the war as well as at other times

What emotion is the deer feeling? How does he convey this feeling? How does this relate to

how people were feeling in the world at that time?

The Frightened Deer. 1913

Colors, lines and shapes can symbolise emotion

Feeling Color Shape/Line

REDAngry

Your task.Look closely at the picture

of

The Yellow Cow.

Think of how you could use the same objects in the picture but by changing their line, shape and color you can change the feeling and the meaning of the work.

Now

Copy the picture carefully using outline only but change the picture so it will convey another emotion.

The colours in this picture tend to be more red so

it will convey a feeling of anger

or energy.

Also the cows shape has been

distorted so it follows a

diagonal line therefore giving a

sense of movement.

You must follow this criteria.

• Marking criteria.• Total marks 30. Date due week 4. term 2• Materials to be used. Pencil to draw outlines.

Watercolour to fill in the picture. Must be as big as the page with a 5cm boarder around the picture,

• The picture must be neatly presented in your art book.• You will be marked on how well you use line, shape and

colour to symbolise an emotion. (10 marks)• and• how well you draw and paint the image. You will be

expected to use chiaroscuro to make the picture look 3 dimensional.