The Blue Rider (German: Der Blaue Reiter) was a group of like-minded artists who came together in Munich in 1911. The group included Wassily Kandinsky, Alexej von Jawlensky, Franz Marc, August Macke, Marianne von Werefkin and Gabriele Münter. The Blue Rider artists explored spiritual values in their art as a response to what they saw as the materialism and moral corruption of their times.  Kandinsky wrote later that the name derived from Marc’s enthusiasm for horses and Kandinsky’s love of riders, combined with their shared love of the color blue. The group dissolved with the outbreak of World War I in 1914. Web resource here.

Franz Marc. The Fate of the Animals. Oil on canvas. 1913. Kunstmuseum, Basel, Switzerland.