Wassily Kandinsky

Maurice Raynal, Paris (a gift from the artist in March 1930)
Sale: Kornfeld & Klipstein, Bern, 28th May 1964, lot 525
R. M. Light, Boston, 1964
B.C. Holland, Chicago (possibly)
Private Collection, United States (probably acquired from the above in the 1960s; sale: Sotheby's, London, 4th February 2010, lot 235)
Purchased at the above sale by the present owner 

Artist's Handlist, Watercolours, listed as 'xii 1925, 198, Zartes Gemüt'
Vivian Endicott Barnett, Kandinsky Watercolours, Catalogue raisonné, 1922-1924, New York, 1994, vol. II, no. 761, illustrated p. 150

Executed on cream wove paper, not laid down and attached to the artist’s mount along all four edges. The edges are deckled and slightly irregular with some minor scuffs and flattened creases in places. There is some very minor timestaining to the sheet and a few faint scattered spots of foxing, the largest of which is visible at the centre of the lower left quadrant. There is a small spot of paper abrasion to the centre of the composition. The pigments remain fresh and vibrant. This work is in overall very good condition.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

Painted in 1925, whilst Wassily Kandinsky was teaching at the Bauhaus in Dessau, Zartes Gemüt is an exquisite example of the increasingly geometric abstract language employed by the artist during this period. Formed of elegantly interweaving triangular and circular forms, the present work celebrates the supreme importance of the triangle within Kandinsky’s œuvre as a symbolic or theoretical signifier. Dominated by the powerful central form of an isosceles triangle, the interplay of the surrounding geometric shapes and lines infuses the work with an extraordinary sensation of dynamism and movement. At the upper right of the composition, a triangle appears to pierce the outer extent of a circle, a creative action which Kandinsky considered to be of seminal significance, declaring that: ‘The contact between the acute angle of a triangle and a circle has no less effect than that of God’s finger touching Adam’s in Michelangelo’ (quoted in Christopher Short, The Art Theory of Wassily Kandinsky, 1909-1928: The Quest for Synthesis, Bern, 2010, p. 159). The present work also features an intriguing provenance: the first owner was Maurice Raynal - a critic and art historian who founded L'Intransigeant with Tériade - to whom Kandinsky gifted Zartes Gemüt in 1930.

The aesthetic theories governing many of Kandinsky's compositions throughout his career derived from his 1911 treatise, Concerning the Spiritual in Art, in which he praised the power of colour and its influence on the beholder. By the time Zartes Gemüt was executed, Kandinsky had taken these theories even further with the publication of Punkt und Linie zu Fläche (Point and Line to Plane) in 1923. Most notably, he developed his ‘Theory of Correspondences’, which emphasised a systematic study of pictorial elements and emphasised the importance of combining the forms of triangle and circle, considered by the artist to be 'the two primary, most strongly contrasting plane figures' (quoted in Kandinsky: Russian and Bauhaus Years, 1915-1933 (exhibition catalogue), The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, 1983, p. 51). In its thrilling combination of form and colour, Zartes Gemüt is a magnificent example of Kandinsky’s creative and philosophical theories during this highly significant moment in his artistic career.