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Lot Essay
The small market town of Murnau, nestled in the shadows of the Bavarian Alps, was the location for one of the most significant breakthroughs in the art of the pioneering painter, Wassily Kandinsky. The artist and his partner, Gabriele Münter, had come across Murnau during their travels through the German countryside in 1907, and were instantly attracted to the town’s picturesque setting and tranquil atmosphere. They returned the following summer, along with their friends Alexej von Jawlensky and Marianne Werefkin, and spent the entire month of August engaged in new artistic production. This first summer in Murnau proved to be a significant turning point in the artistic growth of all four painters, with each member of the group achieving new levels of creativity, inspired by the location and driven by their exposure to one another’s art. The paintings Kandinsky created during this time heralded the emergence of a new, more expressive style in his work, which would lead directly to his later experiments in abstraction. Executed in intense, luminous swathes of colour, Murnau – Strasse illustrates this new shift in Kandinsky’s oeuvre in the summer of 1908, as the artist captures the extraordinary play of light across the streets of Murnau with effusive brushstrokes and a distinct simplification of form.
Kandinsky, Jawlensky, Münter and Werefkin often worked together in a communal manner during their time in Murnau, frequently painting the same scenes from different viewpoints, and pursuing similar stylistic experiments in their work. The drama and natural beauty of the broad expanses of the Murnau moors set against the scenic backdrop of the Alpine peaks provided the artists with a compelling visual environment, and the sweeping Bavarian landscape featured heavily in their output from this time. The four artists also engaged in intense theoretical discussions, debating the aims and achievements of their paintings and analysing the developments their work underwent in this rich, creative atmosphere. It was Jawlensky who took the lead in guiding the quartet’s evolution at this time, with both Münter and Kandinsky portraying him as the group’s mentor in their memoirs. Sharing his knowledge of the French avant-garde with his fellow painters, Jawlensky encouraged them to develop a free and expressive handling of colour and form in their work, inspired by the art of Vincent van Gogh and the Nabis. Kandinsky was particularly influenced by the dynamic structures and treatment of colour in Jawlensky’s Murnau pictures, and the resemblances between the two’s paintings were particularly pronounced at this time.
Infused with a sense of stillness, Murnau – Strasse captures the quiet serenity of one of the town’s thoroughfares, as it is hit by a dazzling shaft of radiant, Alpine sunlight. Devoid of human presence, the painting captures the tranquillity of the provincial town so adored by the group, and the escape it offered them from the bustling metropolis of Munich. This burst of light divides the painting into two distinct sections, and creates a stark contrast between the deep tones of the shadows in the foreground, and the luminous, pastel hues of the street which cuts diagonally through the composition. Constructed using loose, superimposed brushstrokes of complementary shades of yellow and blue, this street acts as a boundary between the darkness of the shadows cast by the building on the left hand side, and the brightly coloured houses which sit along the opposite edge of the road. The cool, soft-hued tones of these colourful dwellings are enhanced by the addition of a zinc-white paint, which granted a new level of luminosity to Kandinsky’s palette, while contrasting coloured shadows add a sense of three-dimensionality and spatial depth to their form.
Bathed in the bright Alpine sunlight, these houses are summarily outlined by the artist using simple geometric patches of pigment in thick, rectangular brushstrokes. Simplifying their forms, Kandinsky reduces these buildings to a series of basic architectural shapes, restricting their representation to essential details. Indeed, as the houses disappear into the distance, they become increasingly less defined, dissolving into streaks of colour in the intense, vibrant sunlight. This simplification of form and freedom of application was one of the most significant developments in Kandinsky’s art at this time, enhancing the intensity and effect of his colours and granting them an increased focus within the composition. Kandinsky further explores this approach in the area of deep shadow in the foreground of the painting, where the view is abstracted to the point that the daubs of pigment become autonomous pictorial entities, independent of their subject. Here, the details of the scene become subservient to the artist’s experimentations, as colour is pushed to the point where it begins to float freely within the composition and operate as an independent element in its own right.
With its loose, expressive approach to colour and form, Murnau – Strasse represents a transitional period in Kandinsky’s work, as he began to experiment with non-objective representation in his painting. Although still firmly rooted in the world of external appearances, beautifully capturing the serenity of the sleepy hill-top town and the bright, luminous light of the sub-Alpine location, the painting contains elements which border on the abstract, and point decisively towards Kandinsky’s later move towards pure abstraction.
Kandinsky, Jawlensky, Münter and Werefkin often worked together in a communal manner during their time in Murnau, frequently painting the same scenes from different viewpoints, and pursuing similar stylistic experiments in their work. The drama and natural beauty of the broad expanses of the Murnau moors set against the scenic backdrop of the Alpine peaks provided the artists with a compelling visual environment, and the sweeping Bavarian landscape featured heavily in their output from this time. The four artists also engaged in intense theoretical discussions, debating the aims and achievements of their paintings and analysing the developments their work underwent in this rich, creative atmosphere. It was Jawlensky who took the lead in guiding the quartet’s evolution at this time, with both Münter and Kandinsky portraying him as the group’s mentor in their memoirs. Sharing his knowledge of the French avant-garde with his fellow painters, Jawlensky encouraged them to develop a free and expressive handling of colour and form in their work, inspired by the art of Vincent van Gogh and the Nabis. Kandinsky was particularly influenced by the dynamic structures and treatment of colour in Jawlensky’s Murnau pictures, and the resemblances between the two’s paintings were particularly pronounced at this time.
Infused with a sense of stillness, Murnau – Strasse captures the quiet serenity of one of the town’s thoroughfares, as it is hit by a dazzling shaft of radiant, Alpine sunlight. Devoid of human presence, the painting captures the tranquillity of the provincial town so adored by the group, and the escape it offered them from the bustling metropolis of Munich. This burst of light divides the painting into two distinct sections, and creates a stark contrast between the deep tones of the shadows in the foreground, and the luminous, pastel hues of the street which cuts diagonally through the composition. Constructed using loose, superimposed brushstrokes of complementary shades of yellow and blue, this street acts as a boundary between the darkness of the shadows cast by the building on the left hand side, and the brightly coloured houses which sit along the opposite edge of the road. The cool, soft-hued tones of these colourful dwellings are enhanced by the addition of a zinc-white paint, which granted a new level of luminosity to Kandinsky’s palette, while contrasting coloured shadows add a sense of three-dimensionality and spatial depth to their form.
Bathed in the bright Alpine sunlight, these houses are summarily outlined by the artist using simple geometric patches of pigment in thick, rectangular brushstrokes. Simplifying their forms, Kandinsky reduces these buildings to a series of basic architectural shapes, restricting their representation to essential details. Indeed, as the houses disappear into the distance, they become increasingly less defined, dissolving into streaks of colour in the intense, vibrant sunlight. This simplification of form and freedom of application was one of the most significant developments in Kandinsky’s art at this time, enhancing the intensity and effect of his colours and granting them an increased focus within the composition. Kandinsky further explores this approach in the area of deep shadow in the foreground of the painting, where the view is abstracted to the point that the daubs of pigment become autonomous pictorial entities, independent of their subject. Here, the details of the scene become subservient to the artist’s experimentations, as colour is pushed to the point where it begins to float freely within the composition and operate as an independent element in its own right.
With its loose, expressive approach to colour and form, Murnau – Strasse represents a transitional period in Kandinsky’s work, as he began to experiment with non-objective representation in his painting. Although still firmly rooted in the world of external appearances, beautifully capturing the serenity of the sleepy hill-top town and the bright, luminous light of the sub-Alpine location, the painting contains elements which border on the abstract, and point decisively towards Kandinsky’s later move towards pure abstraction.