Wassily Kandinsky

Private Collection, France (acquired from the artist. Sold: Sotheby's, New York, 5th July 1979, lot 459)
Private Collection, Germany (purchased at the above sale)
Galerie Thomas, Munich
Galerie Schlégl, Zurich
Acquired from the above by the late owner in 1984

Lugano, Museo Cantonale d'Arte, Kandinsky nelle collezioni svizzere, 1995, no. 79, illustrated in colour in the catalogue

The artist’s handlist: ‘Watercolours’: 1941, 701 (aq. + g.s. pulv.)
Vivian Endicott Barnett, Kandinsky Watercolours, Catalogue Raisonné, London, 1994, vol. II, no. 1336, illustrated p. 514

Executed on thick wove paper, not laid down, hinged to the mount at the top edge, floating in the mount. This work is in very good original condition. Colours: Overall fairly accurate in the printed catalogue illustration, although slightly fresher in the original.
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During the German occupation of Paris Kandinsky’s standard artistic practice was compromised by the shortage of the materials needed for oil painting. So in the same way as he had sought solace in watercolour in Moscow during the Revolution, he did so again in Paris. The grandeur of the large scale paintings produced prior to the war, for example the magnificent Composition IX (fig. 1), was invested in jewel-bright watercolours such as the present work. Kandinsky had long practiced watercolour and oil painting as two separate disciplines and regarded his works on paper as important in their own right. The technical innovations that characterised much of the artistic production in Paris during the 1930s had not passed Kandinsky by. While he admired Ernst’s frottages and incorporated sand into his works having seen Braque and Masson do the same, it was the medium of watercolour that commanded his attention during the last years of his career.

The graceful composition of Sans titre and its gentle colours, punctuated by vivid forms, are characteristic of the palette and structure Kandinsky mastered in his late Paris works. Discussing these Christian Derouet, quoting the artist, states: ‘He moved towards pastel colours, and recommended the use of “mixed” tones, rather than pure colours. “The purples shade off into lilac and the lilacs into purple. But where does the purple end, where does the lilac begin?”’ Derouet also notes that in the article ‘La Valeur d’une œuvre concrete’, published in 1939 by XXe Siècle magazine, Kandinsky ‘reveals some of the guiding principles behind his work of that period: the careful balance between shape and spot, the play of tension-via-color between the large colored surfaces and the tiny dots of color. Although the dots are barely perceptible at first, he depends on them to bring the composition ultimately in balance: “One little spot can be given such a strong accent”’ (C. Derouet, Kandinsky in Paris, 1934-1944 (exhibition catalogue), The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, 1985, pp. 32-33).