Sketchbook from the battlefield

de Franz Marc

Franz Marc's famous Sketchbook from the Field contains thirty-six small-format pencil drawings that were produced between March and June 1915--just a few months before the artist's death in March 1916. These precious sheets, which are among the last works produced by Marc, are his artistic legacy. In spite of their miniature scale, the sketches are among the greatest creations of drawing in the twentieth century. They mark the beginning of an age, and yet their Promethean energy points to the future. Delicately lyrical elements in them are linked with a deep constructivist spirit that does not only reflect the avant-garde of the new century, but even today, one hundred years later, has not lost any of its startling modernity. On the occasion of the centenary of the artist's death we will publish a new edition with illustrations of facsimile quality that are comparable to the first facsimile produced in 1956. The book has been out of print for years, as are later editions, none of which even approached the quality of images in the first edition. Michael Semff received his PhD in 1976 for his dissertation on medieval sculpture. Following a sojourn at the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florence, he was a curator at the Graphische Sammlung of the Staatsgalerie Stuttgart and then curator for prints and drawings of the twentieth century at the Staatliche Graphische Sammlung in Munich, which he directed from 2000 to 2015.