Sleeping Shepherdess; Schalfende Hirtin
- Object:
- Date:
- Artist/Maker:
Marc, Franz Moriz Wilhelm, born 1880 - died 1916 (artist)
- Materials and Techniques:
- Museum number:
- Gallery location:
Prints & Drawings Study Room, level E, case MP, shelf 24
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Marc (1880-1916) was a leading German Expressionist and a founder-member of the Blaue Reiter (Blue Rider) group in 1911. These artists sought to express subjective emotions rather than objective reality, although most of their work remained basically figurative. With his fellow artist, the Russian Wassily Kandinsky, Marc strongly upheld spiritual values. He believed in the primacy of intuition and instinct over reason, and this is expressed in his marked preferenceof animals to human beings as subject-matter. Many of his images are of animals, and where people do appear, they are depicted in harmony with nature, as is this sleeping shepherdess.
Physical description
Reclining female nude
Date
1912 (printed)
Artist/maker
Marc, Franz Moriz Wilhelm, born 1880 - died 1916 (artist)
Materials and Techniques
Woodcut on Japan paper
Marks and inscriptions
M.
druck vom Originalholzstock bestätigt Maria Marc
Dimensions
Height: 19.9 cm printed surface, Width: 23.9 cm printed surface, Height: 27.5 cm sheet, Width: 39.2 cm sheet
Descriptive line
Franz Marc. Schlafende Hirtin (Sleeping Shepherdess), 1912
Bibliographic References (Citation, Note/Abstract, NAL no)
Timmers, Margaret (Ed). Impressions of the Twentieth Century: Fine Art Prints from the V&A's Collection. London, V&A Publications, 2001.
The full text of the entry is as follows:
"Franz Marc (1880-1916)
Schlafende Hirtin (Sleeping Shepherdess), 1912
Franz Marc and Vassily Kandinsky were the driving forces behind the circle of revolutionary artists known as Der Blaue Reiter (The Blue Rider). Seeking a higher dimension in art, they expressed universal emotional and spiritual truths rather than external appearances, and used the abstract elements of pictorial language (line and colour) in a way that opposed material reality. The new vision was expressed in Almanach der Blaue Reiter (Blue Rider Almanac) compiled and edited by Marc and Kandinsky during the latter held of 1911; this illustrated and explained the correspondences not only between different art forms but also between the arts of different countries, drawing attention to the expressive power of naïve and primitive cultures.
Marc sought through his art to restore spiritual harmony to a restless world. Both in his art and in his writings he emphasized the primacy of intuition and instinct over reason, and the need for a harmonious union with nature for humanity's spiritual welfare; he rejected industrial technology and modern urban life, and preferred animals, spiritually pure creatures, to man (unless depicted in naked innocence among nature) as vehicles for his artistic expression.
Impressed by the woodcuts of Die Brücke (The Bridge) artists, Marc insisted on their inclusion in the second Blaue Reiter exhibition (1912) and, though primarily a painter and colourist, he began himself to experiment with the technique. Schlafende Hirtin, which is more intricate than the simple massed forms of his first few attempts, displays a growing confidence and markedly improved technical facility. The horizontal line exactly halfway across the image suggests that the block comprised two pieces of wood clamped together. This woodcut was widely publicized when it was printed from the block on the front page of the avant-garde magazine Der Sturm, and signed impressions printed on Japan paper were advertised for sale in a later edition.
Marc sought a purified vision, a way of seeing restored to primitive simplicity and directness. In Schlafende Hirtin consciousness is filled by the calm contemplation of the natural object, the reclining nude in a pastoral scene. The dominant human form is unusual, but here the woman becomes part of nature. The body of the shepherdess harmonizes rhythmically with both the undulating landscape and the animal forms; it curves protectively over the lamb and is, in turn, contained between the two sheep; the rays of light playing on her shoulder add a religious intensity to the atmosphere and emphasize her purity. Marc's use of thick black outlines to convey her voluptuous sensuality in defiance of the flat picture plane endows the shepherdess with essential vitality and suggests his own facility as a sculptor."
Materials
Paper; Ink
Techniques
Wood-cutting
Subjects depicted
Figures; Sheep; Nudes; Sleep
Categories
Prints
Collection code
PDP
