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Franz Marc 1880 - 1916

“The Artist Who Painted a Blue Horse” Written and illustrated by Eric Carle

Eric Carle was inspired by the German Expressionist artist Franz Marc who painted his blue horses 100 years ago. This book is a celebration of the artist Franz Marc. The illustrations were based Franz Marks Blue Horse, Yellow Cow, and the many imaginative animals & colors of these two Artists’ artwork.

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Part l Language Arts:

Student Reading – Biography of the Artist

Franz Marc – Biography 1880 - 1916

Find out how the artist Franz Marc who painted blue horses 100 years ago inspired Eric Carle’s recent book, the Artist Who Painted a Blue

Horse

Let’s do some art history detective work and discover how this happened . . .

Franz Marc, famous for painting animals in surprising colors, was born on February 8, 1880. Growing up in a middle class family in Munich, Germany, he considered becoming a priest or a philosopher. He changed his mind. When he was twenty years old, Franz decided to take painting classes at the Munich Academy of Fine Arts where his father, taught painting . After two years of serious study, he took a field trip to France and was exposed to art that he had never seen before including paintings by the Impressionists and Japanese woodcuts. When he returned home to Munich, Marc decided to teach himself and learn directly from nature. He went to Greece with his brother and made

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realistic animal and landscape studies. He saw the Matisse exhibition in Munich. He also traveled to Paris several times and was deeply impressed by the paintings of van Gogh and Gauguin and by Cubism. He absorbed the techniques and ideas of many artists and produced his own prints and paintings of the animal world. During this time, Marc earned money by teaching lessons on the anatomy of animals to other artists. When he was thirty years old, Franz Marc showed his paintings for the first time in a small gallery in Munich. During this time, along with others he formed The Blue Riders, a group of artists who shared ideas and a style known as Expressionism. These artists expressed intense emotions by using unconventional colors and bold, simplified compositions that startled their viewers. Franz Marc expressed his feelings and ideas about life through his paintings of animals. When World War I broke out in August 1914, Marc immediately enlisted as a German soldier. He believed that the war would change Europe for the better. At the request of the German army, Marc painted camouflage tarps for the war effort. He was deeply saddened when his close friend and fellow Blue Rider artist, August Macke, was killed while serving at the front. Despite his grief and the terrible fighting, Marc continued to draw in his sketchbook. Tragically in 1916, Franz Marc was killed on the battlefield when he was only thirty-six years old. Now, the art history detectives have to follow some important clues . .

Thirteen years after Franz Mark was killed on the battlefield, Eric Carle, the children’s book author and illustrator, was born in America. His parents had emigrated from Germany, the same country where the artist Franz Marc had lived and painted “The Blue Horse”. When Eric Carle was six years old his family returned to Germany. Hitler was in power and World War II would begin in 1939. Hitler was a dictator. During Hitler’s rule, what type of art could be seen and what kind of music could be listened was decided by the government. Any artist who defied the government’s rules was labeled as a so called degenerate or undesirable. Franz Marc was one of the many German Expressionist artists that Hitler labeled as a degenerate. Many paintings by these “degenerate” artists disappeared after being stolen and even destroyed.

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When Eric Carle was 13 years old and still living in Germany, he had a courageous art teacher who secretly showed him the work of these “degenerate” artists. It was then that Eric Carle first saw a reproduction of Franz Marc’s “The Blue Horse”. In 1952, Eric Carle finally made it back to America. Since then, he has become the much-admired author and illustrator of more than 70 children's books, including The Very Hungry Caterpillar and Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? His books are filled with collaged animals in bold, unconventional colors that spark young imaginations. Eric Carle never forgot the blue horse that Franz Marc painted and his recent book The Artist Who Painted a Blue Horse

Selected Bibliography

Hoberg, Annegret, and Helmut Friedel, eds. Franz Marc:

The Retrospective. Exh. cat. Munich: Städtische Galerie

im Lenbachhaus München und Kunstbau, 2005.

Hoberg, Annegret, and Isabelle Jansen. Franz Marc:

Werkverzeichnis. Skizzenbücher und Druckgraphik. Vol.

3. Munich: C. H. Beck, forthcoming.

Lankheit, Klaus. Franz Marc: Katalog der Werke.

Cologne: DuMont Schauberg, 197

Franz Marc painted horses in blue and cows in yellow. He chose surprising and unexpected colors. The colors that he used were like secret codes for his emotions and ideas.

Here are a few of Franz Marc’s secret color codes: using adjectives

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BLUE = strong YELLOW = gentle RED = stubborn

PART #1 - Write your own secret color codes:

BLUE = _________________________________

YELLOW = _______________________________

RED = ___________________________________

GREEN = ________________________________

BLACK = _________________________________

WHITE = _________________________________

PURPLE = ________________________________

ORANGE = _______________________________

PART #2 - Write some word switches:

Here is an example: Blue = calm = The blue sky = The calm sky

The red rose = The __________ __ rose

The yellow sun = The _____ _______sun

The white cloud = The _____ _______cloud

The black cat = The _______ _____cat

The purple dress = The ______ ______dress

The orange chair = The ______ ______chair

The grey machine = The _________ ___machine

The blue horse = The _________ ___horse

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PART #3 - Language Arts:

Student Writing—Short story

TUSD Art Standards and Performance Objective:

Reflective Writing

Write a short story using your words from your word detective game (page 5).

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_____________________________________________________ (SEE - NEXT PAGE IS STUDENT VOCABULARY WORD LIST) Language Arts: Vocabulary

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Franz Marc “BLUE is the male (MAN), astringent and spiritual, YELLOW is the female (WOMEN) gentle, gay and spiritual. RED is matter, brutal and heavy and always the color to be opposed and overcome by the other two colors.”

“The Blue Rider”

symbols

watercolors

warm colors red – orange – yellow

cool colors blue - green - purple

intersecting lines

Germany

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World War I Animals you can draw

horse cat dog deer lamb fox cow tiger

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Franz Marc - Art Lesson #1 Materials: 1 white paper 12” X 18” heavy paper 8.5” X 6” cover with tinfoil glue on

Paper to mount painting watercolors Paintbrushes Scissors

Tape Elmer’s Glue

Teacher will review vocabulary and look at the artwork of Franz Marc. Talk to students about how to simplify drawing of animals. Teacher, demonstrate how to use circle guides to draw a simple animal.

horse - cow dog - deer - fox - sheep - cat Students will draw, in pencil. Draw a large simple animal using the gray geometric shape. The animal needs to be large, touching the outer parts of the paper. Student will review simple pictures of Franz Marc’s animals. Students will then trace their animal drawing on tinfoil using a thick black crayon. Then, cut out animal shape. Student will use (watered down) Elmer’s Glue and tissue to color their animal. Student will choose warm or cool color tissue. Teacher will demonstrate the meaning of intersecting lines. On large paper Students will draw intersecting lines to create a background like Franz Marc’s painting. Trace over lines with colored markers. Students will use watercolor to paint inside shapes. Students begin by drawing 3 or 4 objects found in Franz Marc’s backgrounds such as: sun, moon, cloud, tree, bush, grass, mountain, waterfall or house. Tape cut out animals to Franz Marc style background.

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Where in the WORLD How many miles would the Blue Horse have to travel between Germany and United States of America? How would the Blue Horse cross the Atlantic Ocean? ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

MAP ledger for distance Each unit is 1000 miles Total bar is approximately 8,000 miles

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A place in TIME 1879 Albert Einstein born Germany 1880 Franz Marc born Germany 1884 Marc Twain publishes Huckleberry Finn 1886 Statue of Liberty unveiled 1903 Wright Brothers fly first airplane 1904 Henry Ford Model T automobile 1911 Franz Marc paints The Blue Horse 1912 Arizona becomes a state 1914 World War I begins 1916 Franz Marc killed on the battlefield 1929 Eric Carle born in America 2011 Eric Carle writes and illustrates The Artist Who Painted the Blue Horse

Find 3 events that happened in Germany and 3 events that happened in the United States of America between 1880 and 2011 and add them to the timeline. Don’t forget to add your birthday!

GERMANY 1___________________________________________________________ 2___________________________________________________________

What countries will The Blue Horse visit on his travels from Germany to the USA? _________________ ________________ _________________ ________________ _________________ ________________ _________________ ________________ _________________ ________________

Ice cream cones were popularized December 13, 1903, a New Yorker named Italo Marchiony McDonald's first filed for a U.S. trademark on the name, May 4, 1961 The first electric light was made in 1800 by Humphry Davy, an English scientist. Legos - the Lego train system was first released in USA 1966. M&M chocolates were first sold in 1914; the candy was packages in cardboard tubes USA

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3___________________________________________________________

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 1___________________________________________________________ 2___________________________________________________________ 3___________________________________________________________

Blue Horse Green Fox

Yellow Cow

White Dog

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Orange Sheep

Purple Cat Red Deer

Franz Marc - Art Lesson # 2 Materials: Yellow or blue paper 12” X 18” Paper white 8.5” X 6” Paper to mount painting Tempura paint Paintbrushes Scissors tape

Teacher will review vocabulary and look at the artwork of Franz Marc. Talk to students about how to simplify drawing of animals. Teacher, demonstrate how to use circle guides to draw a simple animal. Horse - cow dog - deer - fox - sheep - cat Students will draw, in pencil. Draw a large simple animal using the gray geometric shape if needed. The animal needs to be large, touching the outer parts of the paper. Draw an animal like Eric Carl. Student will review simple pictures of Franz Marc’s animals. Draw animal using black marker or thick black crayon. Paint animal with warm or cool colors. Allow paint to dry. Then, cut out animal shape. Teacher will demonstrate the meaning of intersecting lines. On large paper Students will draw intersecting lines to create a background like Franz Marc’s painting. Trace over lines with white paint. Student may need to paint white lines 2 times, (allow drying). Students will use colored chalk to fill inside shapes. Tape cut out animals to Franz Marc style background.

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