Wassily Kandinsky

Gabriele Münter (acquired from the artist)
Private Collection (and sold: Sotheby’s New York, November 12, 1988, lot 332)
Acquired at the above sale by the present owner

Munich, Stadtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Kandinsky (Gabriele-Münter-Stiftung) und Gabriele Münter, Werke aus fünf Jahrzehnten, 1957, no . 51, illustrated in color in the catalogue
New York, Helly Nahmad Gallery, KANDINSKY Sounds of Color, 2004, n.n., illustrated in color in the catalogue

Hans K. Roethal & Jean K. Benjamin, Kandinsky, Catalogue Raisonné of the Oil Paintings, vol. I, New York, 1982, no. 168, illustrated p. 176

Under UV the varnish is opaque and therefore positive identification of retouches is not possible. To the naked eye there is a crack from upper right corner running diagonally through the composition to lower left edge. Other smaller cracks are visible near the center of left side. Near center right side there is another crack and at lower right there are other cracks and losses. All of these have been broadly and badly restored. If the work is cleaned restorations can be reapplied more economically and sensitively and the picture is also dirty and should respond well to cleaning. The above condition report has been prepared by Simon Parkes, an independent conservator who is not an employee of Sotheby's.
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.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Kandinsky’s depiction of the entrance to St. Cloud Park dates from 1906, when the artist spent the summer in Paris. The composition here is a wonderful example of a key period in the artist’s development, introducing a style of painting that paved the way toward the radical abstraction that would dominate his art at the end of the decade. During his summer living at no. 12 rue des Ursulines, Kandinsky was profoundly inspiration in the charm of the city's parks and its surroundings, and the present work is one of the rare manifestations of his experience during this period. What is particularly striking about this image are the sharp, horizontal shadow-bands of white rendered across the black, sun-lit background. This radical reorganization of the natural world evidences Kandinsky’s willful subversion of traditional uses of color and tone to convey light and shadow. The liberty taken with color by the Fauve painters, whose works Kandinsky had seen in Paris in the 1905 Salon d'Automne, had been a revelation, pointing the way towards the invention of a pictorial language that would free painting from the object.

Will Grohmann notes how Kandinsky’s radical experimentation with color during this period led to an entirely new aesthetic direction in his paintings: “Colour becomes increasingly crucial... This was the direction of development. The painter distributes and links the colours, combines them and differentiates them as if they were beings of a specific character and special significance. As in music, the materials now come to the fore, and in this respect Kandinsky stands between Mussorgsky and Scriabin. The language of colour, just as in the composers, calls for depth for fantasy; and Kandinsky's art will henceforward depend increasingly on its own resources" (William Grohmann, Wassily Kandinsky, Life and Work, New York, 1958, pp. 60-61).