A History of The Large Blue Horses at the Walker

When the 1911 painting Die grossen blauen Pferde (The Large Blue Horses) entered the collection of the Walker Art Center in 1942, it quickly became a favorite of visitors. Indeed, the most common question Walker staff answer is: “Where are the blue horses?” Sometimes it seems to visitors that the painting by Franz Marc is never on view. In fact, it has been a few years since the painting was shown in Minneapolis (2016). In celebration of its return to the galleries, here are a few highlights from past exhibitions of The Large Blue Horses.

Shortly after the Walker acquired the painting, it was on view over the grand staircase of the first Walker Art Center building. When people entered the museum, the first thing they saw was the long sweeping staircase in the vast lobby, the top of which featured paintings from the T. B. Walker Collection. Until The Large Blue Horses arrived, that prime space was reserved for artists like French portrait painter Robert LeFèvre.

So, when The Large Blue Horses went on display, it was either a shock to museum visitors or refreshing to see this 20th-century masterwork at the top of the stairs.

As shown in the image above, the painting was used for Walker’s educational mission. Starting in 1940, with assistance from the Works Progress Administration (WPA), the Walker opened an art school where students of all ages could take classes in subjects such as drawing, design, and sculpture. In addition, educational outreach to local schools brought classes to the Walker. The students in the photograph above are making sketches of The Large Blue Horses. Throughout the years, the painting has inspired many students.

The painting was well known to the public even before entering the Walker’s collection. This was largely due to the accessibility of prints of artworks to purchase for personal home enjoyment; prints of The Large Blue Horses have been in circulation since 1919.

This fashionable apartment of Mr. and Mrs. Julius Davis featured a print of The Large Blue Horses above the sofa. While the image is black and white, the article describes the living room’s vivid color scheme inspired by Marc’s painting.

“The carpet is twist weave in Glacier blue, the walls and draperies a shade lighter. Above the sofa is Franz Marc’s bluehorses,… Chinese yellow lacquer tables flank a yellow low and grey textured sofa. On the opposite side of the room is a flamingo red linen chair and one in blue of a rough fabric. The leaf pattern of this chair furnished the motif of red and yellow leaves appliqued on the blue draperies. The twin lamps have blue bases…” (Minneapolis Sunday Tribune and Star Journal, November 8, 1942)

In 1971 the Walker’s familiar brick building by Edward Larrabee Barnes opened to the public. For the grand opening, The Large Blue Horses was on view in Gallery 7 with other works from the permanent collection.

This installation of the painting is very cozy, with plush sofas, coffee tables, and the large terrace window looking out over the city. The arrangement is reminiscent of the Davis apartment; however, this was an unusual configuration. Most installations provide ample space for tour stops, as seen below from a gallery tour in the 1970s.

One of the more memorable installations of the painting happened in 2000, when the Walker Art Center, Busch-Reisinger Museum, Harvard University, and Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, Germany, organized Franz Marc and the Blue Rider exhibition. This ambitious show brought together works by The Blue Rider, a group of artists in the early 20th-century fascinated by color and its meaning founded by Marc and Wassily Kandinsky. Many of these works had rarely if ever been displayed together, including Marc’s The Large Blue Horses (1911) and The Small Yellow Horses (1912).

On view from 2014 to 2016, Art at the Center, the 75th-anniversary show honoring the opening of the Walker Art Center in 1940, was the last time the painting was on display in Minneapolis. But when the show came down, the painting did not go to storage; it went on the road to New York and Switzerland. It was not until 2023 that The Large Blue Horses galloped back to Minneapolis. Now, visitors can enjoy seeing the painting once again as part of the exhibition This Must Be the Place: Inside the Walker’s Collection,opening in June 20, 2024.▪︎

Experience Die grossen blauen Pferde (The Large Blue Horses) as well as over 100 years of art found in the Walker’s collections for yourself during normal gallery hours or 24/7 on the Walker website.