My Favorite Painting

When I was seventeen, I discovered my most favorite painting in the world! It is a creation of Franz Marc's and is titled "Yellow Cow". I was in the Guggenheim with my parents and I saw this painting on the wall and absolutely fell in love with it. The cow in this painting is just so happy. She's light-heartedly bounding through a brightly colored world that makes me think of summer in a wilderness before man came along (regardless of the cows domestication.) The first time I saw it, I couldn’t stop laughing. I thought it was silly and fun and that the artist must really love animals and bright colors. It's a painting that never gets old to look at, no matter how many times I see it.
Marc’s artistry focused around the belief in the symbolism of colors. The use of color in his paintings was very arbitrary, using hues in relation to what he meant to communicate through his work as opposed to making his paintings look as realistic as possible. In his color symbolism, Marc believed that different hues represented different genders and their stereotypes. Blue symbolizes masculinity and intellect while yellow represents cheeriness, gentleness, and femininity. Marc’s use of animals such as this happy cow focused around a movement that swept Germany that gave people a “back-to-nature” conviction. Nudist colonies sprang up, living with the land and directly off the land became the status quo for many people. Marc’s work was influenced by the movement and his own philosophy about the “virginal” innocence of animals and their perception of the world around them. He believed they possessed a divinity and truth that guided his work and his depiction of animals.
Franz Marc created “Yellow Cow” in 1911, shortly after his marriage to Maria Frank. Some believe that this lighthearted, joyous creature, painted in yellow, was meant to portray his wife.
The painting, done with an oil paint medium, is bold and highly saturated with color. Oil paints are fantastic for long-term work because of their slow drying process. The paint can be thickly applied for texture in impasto-style work and the colors are wonderfully bold. They can also be thinned out for a really neat translucent appearance.
Franz Marc’s “Yellow Cow” is a wonderful portrayal of all that is good in the world. The animal is a simply pleased one, with few demands and low-maintenance, making it a wonderful example of the simplicity and the perfection that exists in nature.

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