Fate of the Animals (1913), The Yellow Cow (1911), Fighting Forms (1914)
Franz Marc, along with Wassily Kandinsky, founded the Der Blaue Reiter group within the German Expressionist movement. Marc was enlisted as soldier in World War I, where he painted camouflage tarpaulin covers to hide the artillary from aircraft flying overhead. Marc was among many other German artists to be listed for withdrawal from combat, however, he was killed at the Battle of Verdun in 1916 by a stray shell splinter before order for his withdrawal reached him.
Marc completed his most famous work, Fate of Animals, in 1913 as tensions were running increasingly high in Europe before the outbreak of WWI. On the back of the canvas, Marc wrote "Und Alles Sein ist flammend Leid" ("And all being is flaming agony"). As Marc served in the army, he wrote to his wife of the painting as "like a premonition of this war—horrible and shattering. I can hardly conceive that I painted it."
German Expressionism, Der Blaue Reiter