Lot Essay
Die Rosen was executed in 1905, and is one of several works in the series Kandinsky termed Farbige Zeichnungen (coloured drawings). These works are more informal than paintings, but are not drawings in the traditional sense, since they are loosely painted rather than drawn. The terminology used here is characteristic of a growing trend among Jugendstijl artists to redefine the traditional labels for their chosen media.
Die Rosen is related to a woodcut of 1903, Rosen (Roethel no. 14) which was published in Poems Without Words in Moscow in that year. The present work must have been painted during the first half of 1905 since it was reproduced in Italy that summer. The Biedermeier imagery employed in Die Rosen is present in various works by Kandinsky throughout the first decade of the century, first notable in the woodcuts of 1902, and finally in the large canvas Reifrocke of 1909 (H. K. Roethel and J. K. Benjamin, Kandinsky, Catalogue Raisonné of the Oil Paintings 1900-1915, London, 1982, no. 263). Strong similarities are also visible between Die Rosen and Hoher Besuch (V. Endicott Barnett, op. cit., 1992, nos. 185 and 186), such as the ladies' costumes and the blossoming chestnut trees. The houses in the background are also strongly reminiscent of earlier works, most notably Altes Städtchen and Festzug both dated 1903 (ibid, nos. 92 and 93)
This gouache was included in the very successful Gummesons Konsthandel exhibition which was Kandinsky's first in Scandanavia. At this time he wrote a letter to Gabriele Münter in which he told his friend, "I shall be very pleased to sell Die Rosen at 500cr." (Barnett, op. cit., 1989, p. 73)
Die Rosen is related to a woodcut of 1903, Rosen (Roethel no. 14) which was published in Poems Without Words in Moscow in that year. The present work must have been painted during the first half of 1905 since it was reproduced in Italy that summer. The Biedermeier imagery employed in Die Rosen is present in various works by Kandinsky throughout the first decade of the century, first notable in the woodcuts of 1902, and finally in the large canvas Reifrocke of 1909 (H. K. Roethel and J. K. Benjamin, Kandinsky, Catalogue Raisonné of the Oil Paintings 1900-1915, London, 1982, no. 263). Strong similarities are also visible between Die Rosen and Hoher Besuch (V. Endicott Barnett, op. cit., 1992, nos. 185 and 186), such as the ladies' costumes and the blossoming chestnut trees. The houses in the background are also strongly reminiscent of earlier works, most notably Altes Städtchen and Festzug both dated 1903 (ibid, nos. 92 and 93)
This gouache was included in the very successful Gummesons Konsthandel exhibition which was Kandinsky's first in Scandanavia. At this time he wrote a letter to Gabriele Münter in which he told his friend, "I shall be very pleased to sell Die Rosen at 500cr." (Barnett, op. cit., 1989, p. 73)