zwei katzen

(Curatorial note: I only realized this morning that I've been paying a disproportionate amount of attention to the kitties in my recent posts. I promise to get some more friends into the mix and soon.)

Zwei Katzen: Two Cats, from the hand of Franz Marc (1880-1916). I've posted before on Marc's role in the founding of The Blue Rider and German expressionism in general, but this piece clearly was created before 1911 or so, which saw Marc strike out into that stylistic innovation. While Wikipedia (public domain; thanks!) did not have a date on this piece, its execution resembles cat studies from circa 1908 that I have found. This would appear to be a lithograph, a process which lends itself well to supple, fine lines such as those winding these cats into existence and around each other. As you can tell, I've been digging like mad for any further facts on this piece. Not finding them, I've had to use my best educated guesses; but that's a pleasure when examining such a beautiful work. Look at the sheer power contained within this image.