Petit mélèze

This is Franz Marc a few years before the Franz Marc most people picture. In 1908 he was around 28 and still working in muted, earthy tones, a single young larch standing on a forest clearing. There are no glowing red horses or blue deer yet; his leap into symbolic colour and the Blue Rider group was still three or four years away. Marc spent long stretches in the countryside south of Munich, watching how light moved among trees and animals, and small works like this larch are where that patient looking starts. He kept the paint close to the real greens and browns of the wood and grass.