Yellow Cow

A large yellow cow lies stretched out across a vividly colored landscape, surrounded by rocky forms and grass, with blue mountains rising behind, red flowers scattered nearby, dark trees standing at the edges, and a purple sky overhead. The painting was made in 1911 using oil, and it belongs to the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, having entered the collection as part of the museum's founding holdings. Its creator, Franz Marc (1880–1916), was a German painter associated with Expressionism, and he also made the piece known as Blue Horse I. The animal itself fills much of the composition, its curving body rendered in a bright, almost glowing yellow that contrasts sharply with the surrounding blues, reds, and purples, giving the whole scene an intense, non-naturalistic energy centered on the resting cow.