Red Woman by Franz Marc

Art work details

Original Title :

Rote Frau

Year of production :

1912

Artist:

Franz Marc

Medium :

Oil painting

Materials:

Oil paint, Canvas

Dimensions :

height: 100.5 cms; width: 70 cms

Credit Line :

Purchased in 1944

Associated Groups :

Der Blaue Reiter

Tags:

Nudity, Red, Marc

Red Woman was one of Marc’s last paintings containing the human figure and reflects the humanistic idea of man’s interrelationship with nature. A ‘primitive’ woman, untouched by the corrupting influence of civilisation, is harmoniously absorbed into a strangely patterned two-dimensional background.

Marc uses colours emotively and symbolically to evoke a paradisiacal setting. The intense red of the woman’s body represents ‘matter, brutal and heavy’, a colour he believed had to be opposed by blue, ‘severe and spiritual’ and yellow, ‘gentle, happy and sensual.’

The additional images show a 1944 letter sent to Mr Hess from Leicester Museums regarding the acquisition of The Red Woman and other artwork. Also shown is a 1959 Leicester Mercury article 'Picture of the Month'. The article calls The Red Woman 'The Girl With Black Hair'.