Tirolo

Marc painted this Alpine landscape in 1913, then asked for it back. In 1914 he reworked it, adding high above the slanting black tree a small figure of the Madonna standing on a crescent moon, the woman of the Apocalypse from the Book of Revelation. The mountains splinter into faceted planes of colour, half rock and half crystal, and the whole scene tips toward something more like a vision than a view. That summer the war he seemed to be sensing arrived. Marc volunteered, and in 1916 he was killed by a shell fragment at Verdun, 36 years old. He had lately been placed on a list of notable artists to be pulled from the front. The order to withdraw him had not yet reached him.