Wassily Kandinsky

Gabriele Münter, Murnau
Private collection, England
Sotheby's London, Russian Art Evening, 26th November 2007, lot 31
Private collection
Acquired from the above by the present owner in 2007

London, Marlborough Gallery, Kandinsky: The Road to Abstraction, 1961, no.22
London, Marlborough Gallery, Kandinsky and his Friends, 1966, no.7

Exhibition catalogue Kandinsky: The Road to Abstraction, London: Marlborough Gallery, 1961, no.22 illustrated b/w
Exhibition catalogue Kandinsky and his Friends, London: Marlborough Gallery, 1966, no.7 illustrated
H.K. Roethel and J.K. Benjamin, Kandinsky, Catalogue Raisonné of Oil Paintings, London, 1982, vol.I, p.165, no.155 illustrated b/w

The upper, lower and right edges of the board are slightly uneven. There is a pin hole to the centre of the left and lower edges which have caused indentations in the paint layer. There is a small area of paint chips in the split of sand near the centre of the right edge and a further small fleck of paint loss to the sky towards the upper right corner and in the blue above centre of the horizon. There is a layer of surface dirt. Inspection under UV light reveals no apparent signs of retouching. Held in a simple gold coloured frame. Unexamined out of frame.
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Wassily Kandinsky and Gabriele Münter spent six months in Rapallo on the Ligurian coast in the winter of 1905 and spring of 1906 during their extensive travels around Europe. The small-format oils that Kandinsky painted of the places the couple visited are characterised by their thick impasto, applied by palette knife rather than brush, and their free use of paint. These quickly executed observations of the natural world referenced the Impressionists with their plein-air technique but Kandinsky had no interest in rendering fleeting light and air effects, but rather the psychological effect produced by the colours on the viewer.

At this point in his career Kandinsky’s use of colour is still naturalistic and representative, but it is already heightened. It is the relationship between colours and the sensation their rapport creates that is of paramount importance. In this shimmering blue-green composition, each colour is a separate musical note but heralds from the same tonal family; in combination they resonate powerfully together to produce a visual chord: 'Colour is a means of exerting a direct influence upon the soul. Colour is the keyboard. The eye is the hammer. The soul is the piano with its many strings. The artist is the hand that purposefully sets the soul vibrating by this or that key.' (W.Kandinsky, On the Spiritual in Art, 1911).