After years of a nomadic lifestyle, Wassily Kandinsky and Gabriele Münter returned to Bavaria in 1908 and settled in Munich's artistic district of Schwabing. Working together in the Upper Bavarian Alps, especially in Murnau, where Alexej von Jawlensky and Marianne von Werefkin also came, meant liberation from years of experimentation and, at the same time, a decisive breakthrough to their own artistic means of expression, especially for Kandinsky and Münter.
They usually spent the summer months in Murnau am Staffelsee, in the vicinity of which this painting was created. The Ettaler Mandl, shown in dark red at the top right of the painting, is a 1,633-meter-high limestone peak in the Ammergau Alps. Kandinsky combines bright yellow-orange with dark blue and red to create a harmonious atmosphere reminiscent of a sunset. The colors are applied in broad strokes. White dots around the dark clouds and on the mountain peaks provide contrast.
The painting has been on permanent loan to the Von der Heydt Museum since 2023.
- Location & Dating
- 1909
- Material & Technique
- Öl auf Pappe
- Dimensions
- 33 x 45 cm
- Museum
- Von der Heydt Museum
- Inventory number
- D 0196