Wassily Kandinsky

Nina Kandinsky, Paris (the artist's wife)
Galerie Berggruen, Paris (acquired in 1972)
Private Collection, New York
Acquired from the above by the present owner

Erfurt, Angermuseum, Kunstverein, Wassily Kandinsky, 1925
Paris, Galerie l'Esquisse, Etapes de l'œuvre de Wassily Kandinsky, 1944
Paris, Galerie Maeght, Kandinsky: Aquarelles et gouaches. Collection privée de Madame W. Kandinsky, 1957, no. 7
Paris, Berggruen & Cie., Kandinsky, acquarelles & dessins, 1972, no. 3, illustrated in colour in the catalogue
London, The Lefevre Gallery, Oil Paintings and Watercolours by Wassily Kandinsky, 1973, no. 9, illustrated in colour in the catalogue
Malmö, Malmö Konsthall & Stockholm, Moderna Museet, Kandinsky and Sweden, 1989, no. 36, illustrated in colour in the catalogue
Dusseldorf, Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen & Stuttgart, Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, Wassily Kandinsky: Aquarelle und Zeichnungen, 1992, no. 50, illustrated in colour in the catalogue

Artist's Handlist, Watercolours, listed as '1916, 9a'
Hans K. Roethel & Jean K. Benjamin, Kandinsky Catalogue Raisonné of the Oil-Paintings, Volume Two 1916-1944, London, 1984, illustrated p. 589
Vivian Endicott Barnett, Kandinsky Watercolours, Catalogue Raisonné, London, 1992, vol. I, no. 448, illustrated p. 390

Executed on cream wove paper, laid down on board, hinged to the mount at the reverse of the top two corners, floating in the mount. Apart from some minor specks of pigment loss, mainly to the lower right and left of the sheet, this work is in very good condition. Colours: Overall fairly accurate in the printed catalogue illustration, although slightly less red in the original.
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Eight Watercolours by Wassily Kandinsky From A Distinguished Private Collection:

Sotheby's is honoured to present this extraordinary and remarkably comprehensive collection of watercolours by Wassily Kandinsky. Not only do the works represent the various different periods of the artist's creative development, but are also exemplary of the exquisite modes of expression for which Kandinsky's entire œuvre is celebrated. They present a unique overview of Kandinsky's pivotal role in the birth of abstraction and his life-long exploration of modern artistic representation. The extraordinary lucidity with which Kandinsky expressed his ground-breaking aesthetic theories is particularly evident in his watercolours, the result of his highly inventive mastery of the medium: 'In many of his works on paper the colours nevertheless achieve a brilliance and saturation rarely approached in his oils. Given the central importance of colour in his œuvre, it might therefore be argued that Kandinsky's sensibilities found its fullest expression in his watercolours' (Frank Whitford, Kandinsky: Watercolours and other Works on Paper (exhibition catalogue), The Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1999, p. 13).

This exquisite collection features works from seminal moments in the artist's career. Ohne Titel was produced during a brief but hugely significant trip to Sweden in 1916, and the magnificent Entwurf zu grüner Rand of 1919 is a rare example of his work from post-revolutionary Russia. Kandinsky's Bauhaus years are gloriously illustrated by four exemplary works, including the wonderful Schweben of 1924 and La Forme Blanche and Etude pour 'Contraste reduits' from his glorious French period. Rarely does such a complete set of works come onto the market and this group is a testament to the passionate collecting and profound conoisseurship of the present owner. Kandinsky's watercolours are well-represented in the major museums of the world and have been celebrated in landmark exhibitions dedicated solely to works on paper, an honour seldom accorded to other artists.

Ohne Titel is a wonderfully evocative watercolour painted by Kandinsky in Sweden during a turning point in his career. In 1916 Kandinsky travelled to Stockholm to stay with Gabriele Münter. In her introduction to the exhibition Kandinsky and Sweden, in which the present work was included, Vivian Endicott Barnett writes: 'Kandinsky and Sweden is a brief but crucial chapter within the life of one of the most original and influential artists of the early twentieth century. Wassily Kandinsky's trip to Stockholm, which took place between December 1915 and March 1916, is located between Germany and Russia from chronological and geographical points of view as well as historical and personal perspectives' (V.E. Barnett in op. cit., Malmö Konsthall, Malmö, 1989, p. 7). Kandinsky's unparalleled ability to depict dramatic yet graceful forms is fully evident in the present work. The emotional force conveyed by the kaleidoscopic forms clearly relates to his earlier monumental Munich paintings, in which he had first pioneered his abstract art.

As Frank Whitford recounts, Kandinsky's abstraction was informed by a range of influences: 'Though empirical, Kandinsky's progress towards abstract painting was given momentum by ideas, convictions and experiences around which a coherent theory had already crystallised in his mind. Some of the experiences were art itself, as when, in a Moscow gallery, he found himself intensely moved by a painting that glowed with light and colour but appeared to depict nothing recognisable. Only on closer inspection did he see that it was one of Monet's pictures of wheat stacks. Later, in his Munich studio, he had a similar experience in front of a painting that he did not immediately recognise. Then he saw that it was one of his own placed upside down on the easel' (F. Whitford in Kandinsky: Watercolours and other Works on Paper (exhibition catalogue), The Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1999, p. 18).