Among the German Expressionists, artists who used strong color and exaggerated form to express emotional content, Franz Marc was especially committed to his empathic interest in the life of animals. "Is there a more mysterious idea," he asked, "than to imagine how nature is reflected in the eyes of animals?" Beginning in 1905, he devoted himself to representing the world with a fresh and purifying vision. Marc painted The Bewitched Mill following a sojourn to the Italian town of Merano in the southern Tirol. The work's title refers to the "magical" harmony he sensed there between human life, represented by the houses and mill on the left, and nature, embodied by the lyrical region of trees and animals on the right.