Franz Marc

Marc dreamed of a spiritual unity in art expressed through color, symbolism, and increasing abstraction. The contours and markings of the dreaming antelope echo the forms of the landscape, emphasizing the innocence of the creature, far removed from urban life.

Under the National Socialist government, Marc’s work was declared “degenerate,” and Antelope was seized by the government from the state collection of the Landesmuseum, Hannover. Because the Landesmuseum collection was owned by the government, this seizure and sale was a legal transaction. In 1938, risd Museum Director Alexander Dorner, who had first bought this painting while director of the Landesmuseum, purchased it for the second time in his career, on this occasion for RISD.