Wassily Kandinsky

Galerie Der Sturm (Herwarth Walden), Berlin
Gummesons Konsthandel, Stockholm (acquired in 1916)
Carl Frisk, Stockholm
Private Collection, Stockholm (by descent from the above)
Private Collection, France
Sale: Christie's, London, November 29, 1993, lot 26
Acquired at the above sale by the present owner

Paris, Grand Palais des Champs-Élysées, Salon d'Automne, 1905, no. 818 (titled La Grande mère et petite fille) 
Krefeld, Kaiser-Wilhelm Museum, 1906 (according to the artist's handlist)
Berlin, Secession Ausstellunghaus XI, Elfte Ausstellung der Berliner Secession, 1906, no. 146, illustrated in color in the catalogue
Berlin, Galerie Der Sturm & traveling, Kandinsky Kollektiv-Ausstellung, 1912, no. 56, illustrated in color in the catalogue
Stockholm, Gummesons Konstgalleriet & Christiana (Oslo), C. W. Blomquist, Vassily Kandinsky, 1916, no. 14 

The Artist's Handlist, Coloured Drawings, listed as 100, Die Rosen, Grande mère et petite fille
G.B. Rossi, "Arte e Artisti: Kandinsky" in Italia Industriale e Artistica, July/August 1905, illustrated p. 4 
Galerie Der Sturm, Sturm Album, Kandinsky, 1901-13, 1913, illustrated p. 23
Will Grohmann, Wassily Kandinsky, Paris, 1930, p. 24
Will Grohmann, Wassily Kandinsky, Life and Work, New York, 1958, p. 343
Hans Konrad Roethel, Kandinsky. Das Graphische Werk, Cologne, 1970,  pp. 28-29
Donald E. Gordon, Modern Art Exhibitions 1900-1916, vol. II, Munich, 1974, pp. 138 & 158
Jonathan D. Fineberg, Kandinsky in Paris 1906-7, Ann Arbor, Michigan, 1984, pp. 51 & 53
Kandinsky and Sweden (exhibition catalogue), Konstahall, Malmo, 1989, illustrated p. 73
Vivian Endicott Barnett, Kandinsky, Catalogue Raisonné of the Watercolours, 1900-1921, vol. I, London, 1992, no. 190, illustrated p. 178 & in color p. 171

Executed on dark brown colored artist board. There are some scattered nicks to the extreme perimeter and there is some creasing at the upper left corner. There are a few light scratches and scuffs throughout the surface. The dark background color of the sheet is light struck overall and the original color is visible around the extreme perimeter. However, the medium remains extremely bright and fresh and the work is in good condition.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Die Rosen is number 100 in the 1901-07 series Kandinsky referred to as "colored drawings," many of which are lost; of the 132 which Kandinsky executed, only forty remain in museums and private collections. Kandinsky’s ethnographic impulse is strong in these works, in which he predominantly depicts courtly costumes from Biedermeier Germany, village life, and chivalrous scenes in medieval Russia and Germany. Kandinsky’s abiding interest in the decorative components of color, rhythmical line and pattern are evident throughout the series, particularly in his use of tinted cardboard as both painterly tool and medium.

As Vivian Endicott Barnett notes, "The colored drawings...reflect Munich's Jugendstil environment as well as Art Nouveau tendencies in general, as can be seen in the stylization, the relative lack of perspectival depth, the tendency towards the decorative, an interest in applied and decorative arts and a heightened interest in folk art... Another characteristic of the colored drawings is the tendency to stylize the scenery. The figures are rendered as types and not as recognizable individuals. In the colored drawings Kandinsky did not attempt realistic portraiture of a naturalistic representation of landscape; it was the spiritual meaning of the representation which was important to him" (Vivian Endicott Barnett, op. cit., p. 14).

In this 1905 work one can already see Kandinsky’s move towards abstraction via his depiction of the windblown trees, as well as his compositional choices conveying his association of a circle with concepts of the romantic and lyrical, which he had explored more greatly during his Bauhaus period of 1922 to 1933. To Kandinsky, the romantic is a constant, timeless value: “where are the boundaries between the lyric and the romantic? The circle, that I have used so much recently can often be characterized in no other way than as romantic” (quoted in Peg Weiss, Kandinsky in Munich: The Formative Jugendstil Years, Princeton, 1979, p. 129).