Foxes Socks

Artist:  Franz Marc

Created: 1913

Dimensions (cm):  88 × 66

Format:  oil on canvas

Location: Private collection

'The Foxes' is a 1913 painting by Franz Marc, a key figure of German Expressionism. It perfectly encapsulates everything that makes Marc's work so fascinating. The dynamism, sensational colour and incredible balance just draw the viewer's attention to it.
Perfectly capturing the elusive nature of the subject, the animals almost seem to be hidden, and once they are seen clearly, they are fragmented as though we are seeing them through the shards of a shattered window.

It has recently become the centre of attention of every major art collector in the world when it went up for auction, fetching a whopping £42.6 million, following a controversial legal dispute to assert its rightful owners. This painting was purchased in 1928 by Jewish investment banker Kurt Grawi. In November 1938, during Kristallnacht, Grawi was imprisoned and sent to a concentration camp, from which he was able to escape to Chile. In letters written to friends, it became known that he smuggled the painting to Paris, meaning to have it shipped to New York so he could sell it and thus finance his forced exile.

The painting switched hands several times in the years after his death in Santiago do Chile in 1945. In 1960 its owner, a German department store owner, gifted the painting to the Dusseldorf City Art Collection, ending up at the Kunstpalast Art Museum. In 2015, Grawi's heirs submitted a claim for restitution to which officials in Dusseldorf argued that Grawi had indeed received fair compensation for the sale of the painting, making it legal and not a direct result of Nazi persecution. In 2021, the German government set up a special committee to evaluate if this situation could be compared to the Nazi looting of art.
Despite much debate, the committee ultimately recommended the restitution to Grawi's heirs, which the City of Dusseldorf finally did in January 2022.

80% Combed Cotton, 17% Polyamide, 3% Elastane.
Made in Portugal using the most advanced craftsmanship to produce the finest seamless socks.

Wash inside out (40ºC/100ºF max). Do not tumble dry, iron.