Printmaker, landscape painter, and cofounder of Der Blaue Reiter ("The Blue Rider"), Franz Marc (1880–1916) left an exceptional legacy in German Expressionism. His work absorbed influences including Paul Gauguin, van Gogh, Picasso, Henri Matisse, and Robert Delaunay to galvanize a new vocabulary of form and color. Especially keen on depictions of animals, Marc's work began emphasizing cubist, semiabstracted shapes; frenetic, whirling compositions; and in his paintings, a new vocabulary of color.