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Franz Marc
Steiniger Weg (Stony Path), formerly Gebirge/Landschaft (Mountains/Landscape), 1911/1912

Marc painted Landschaft in 1911 and then repainted it in 1912 after visiting Robert Delaunay in Paris. The new version, retitled Gebirge, is a fusion of influences from Orphism, Cubism, and Futurism.

Delaunay’s orphist concern with abstraction and brilliant hues is reflected in the contrasting color planes, which combine to create a surface of multicolored light. Cubism is suggested by the fractured, prismatic forms that define the landscape. The thrusting prisms also generate a dynamic, kaleidoscopic effect reminiscent of Italian Futurism.

Like many artists of the period, Marc desired to attain a state of spirituality; the angular elements that point to the orange sun at the summit evoke a sense of striving toward a higher realm.

Artwork Info

Artwork title
Steiniger Weg (Stony Path), formerly Gebirge/Landschaft (Mountains/Landscape)
Artist name
Franz Marc
Date created
1911/1912
Classification
painting
Medium
oil on canvas
Dimensions
51 1/2 in. × 39 3/4 in. (130.81 cm × 100.97 cm)
Date acquired
1951
Credit
Collection SFMOMA
Gift of the Women's Board and Friends of the Museum
Permanent URL
https://www.sfmoma.org/artwork/51.4095
Artwork status
On view on floor 2 as part of Open Ended: SFMOMA's Collection, 1900 to Now

Audio Stories

Explore all the angles of this mountain scene

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NARRATOR:  

German artist Franz Marc painted this landscape, titled Gebirge, or Mountains, with rich, saturated colors and bold outlines. At the center of the canvas, you can see a zigzag-shaped section thats thought to be the Pioneer Path in Bavaria. Curator Janet Bishop 

 

JANET BISHOP: 

It looks white, icy and treacherous, yet at the very top of the composition is a bright orange sun peeking over the hills. 

 

NARRATOR:  

Notice the pink hills in the upper right-hand corner. These soft curves lead down to dark, muted blue tones. They contrast with the white glacier-like form that cuts through the center of the painting in a more geometric manner.  

 

Marc was a member of Der Blaue Reiter, or the Blue Rider, a group of German painters who were dubbed Expressionists. Rather than illustrate how things looked, they used extremes of color and line to infuse their work with emotional intensity.  

 

What you see before you is not actually the first version of this work. An earlier version of the same painting was displayed in 1911 next to a painting by Parisian artist Robert Delaunay. Look down at your screen to see a photograph from that exhibition of the original Gebirge next to Delaunays painting, The Eiffel Tower.  

 

Marc was so strongly influenced by Delaunay’s use of bright colors and geometric structure that he completely transformed his painting, making it into a visibly cubist rendition of the Southern German landscape that was completely distinct from anything hed done before. 

 

BISHOP:  

It was a very different painting. The mountains were much softer, more curvilinear. And when he went back the following year and repainted it, it became much more angular and fractured. 

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Other Works by Franz Marc

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