Wassily Kandinsky, 1866-1944

bidding is closed

Description

Wassily Kandinsky
the lyre, 1907
signed in Latin l.r. and indistinctly inscribed in Cyrillic l.l. rospis' rukoi
linocut hand-printed in colours from three blocks, worked over by the artist's hand, on fibrous Japan, a fine impression of this extremely rare print, with narrow margins as usual, some soft rubbing towards the sheet edges including the signature and the inscription, a printer's crease at the left sheet edge extending 3cm into the image, one or two foxmarks in the left and right margins, tipped to the original black paper mount at the corners, otherwise generally in good condition
sheet size: 19.4 by 19.6cm., 7½ by 7¾in.

Provenance

The Estate of William A.Hewitt

Literature

For another version see H.K.Roethel, Kandinsky, Das Graphische Werk, Cologne: 1970, No. 53

Catalogue Note

Leier dates from Kandinsky's first, unhappy stay in Paris between May 1906 and June 1907. The difficulty of adapting to the unfamiliar city, depression following his unfortunate marriage to Anya Chemyakin, and the contrastingly good fortune enjoyed by his companion, and future wife, Gabriele Münter led to the artist suffering a nervous breakdown and moving to Germany to recuperate.

Throughout his travels in France and Germany part of Kandinsky's character remained firmly Russian, and at this difficult time the artist turned to Russian folk tales for his inspiration, rather than attending to the creative developments taking place around him. The subject of the linocut is the popular figure of the wandering musician. He appears in Russian folklore as Sadko, whose story formed the basis of Rimsky-Korsakov's 1896 opera of the same name: the Novgorodian gusli (lyre) player successfully woos the Princess Volkhova through the power of his music alone. This is the theme that Kandinsky adapts to a more European style, mixing Russian exoticism with Symbolism.

This work is a particularly characteristic example of Kandinsky's unorthodox method of colouring his woodcuts and linocuts. His technique of mixing pigments with water rather than oil, and applying the resulting colour directly onto the blocks, means that no two impressions are exactly the same. The amount of work required also ensured that very few editions of the same work were created. The brush strokes visible where blue was hand-coloured over red and green, and where red tones have also been added (for example the blue over green to the left of the bird, and the deep shade of blue achieved to the left and right of the Lady's wrists) demonstrate the artist's painterly approach to print-making.

This linocut example is only the fourth known, the other three being in the Musée National d' Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris (Nina Kandinsky bequest, 1981); The State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow; Private Collection, (sale: Sotheby's London, 25^th June 1997, lot 336) exhibited 1999 at the Royal Academy in London in the exhibition °Kandinsky – Watercolours and Other Works on Paper.