Wassily Kandinsky

Nina Kandinsky (the artist's widow)

Monsieur Louis Clayeux, Paris

Marc Blondeau S.A., Paris

Private Collection, Switzerland

Waddington Gallery, London

Michelle Rosenfeld Gallery, New York

Private Collection, New York

Sale: Claude Aguttes, Paris, June 25, 2008, lot 160

Acquired at the above sale by the present owner

Paris, Galerie L'Esquisse, Etapes de l’oeuvre de Wassily Kandinsky, 1944

Zurich, Kunsthaus, Georges Braque-Wassily Kandinsky-Pablo Picasso, 1946, no. 102, illustrated in color

New York, Sidney Janis Gallery, Kandinsky, 1948, no. 26, illustrated in color

Paris, Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Hommage de Paris à Kandinsky, 1972, no. 65, illustrated in color in the catalogue

New York, Michelle Rosenfeld Gallery, Masters of the 20th Century, 1995, illustrated in color in the catalogue

Will Grohmann, Wassily Kandinsky, Life and Work, New York, 1958 no. 518, illustrated p. 392

Hans K. Roethel & Jean K. Benjamin, Kandinsky: Catalogue Raisonné of the Oil Paintings, 1916-1944, vol. II, London, 1984,  no. 1154, illustrated p. 1046

Good condition. Under UV light, retouchings are visible to the extreme upper framing edges and in the black area on the right to address craquelure. There is a tiny dent to the board on the extreme top and two small losses to the extreme right framing edge. The surface and pigment are stable and colors are vibrant compared to the catalogue.
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.

Completed in 1943, Epanouissement was created during the eleven years that Kandinsky spent in Paris. He refers to works from this time to be a “synthesis of his earlier experiments with problems of abstraction” ( Kandinsky: Parisian Period 1934-44 (exhibition catalogue), M. Knoedler & Co., New York, 1969). After he left Germany upon the closing of the Bauhaus in 1933, Kandinsky immersed himself amidst the center of creative activity in Surrealist Paris.  Those works that he completed thenceforward and until his death in 1944 reflect the influences of this prevailing avant-garde movement of the 1930s and early 1940s.  In many of his compositions from this era, including the present work, one can see biomorphic elements that are similar to those found in the works of Miró.  But, ever the committed theoretician, Kandinsky remained true to many of the formal principles that he had promoted while teaching at the Bauhaus. In the present work the combination of geometric and biomorphic forms create a composition alive with rhythmic energy, and the forms appear to erupt against the dark and yellow background, imbued with primeval vitality.

Kandinsky designed every element of Epanouissement with a calculated precision that clearly evidences his formal and mathematical influences of Bauhaus design.  The artist has taken a distinctly level-headed approach in his rendering of the composition, both in its methodical arrangement and balanced tonality, which may explain his title for the picture.   Kandinsky credited the light in Paris with the richer tonality that is evidenced in his paintings from these years.  "The Paris light is very important to me," he wrote to Galka Scheyer in 1935.  "The difference to light in central Germany is enormous -- here it can be simultaneously bright and gentle.  There are gray, overcast days also, with no rain, which is rare in Germany.  The light on these gray days is incredibly rich, with a varied range of color and an endless degree of tones.  Such a quality of light reminds me of the light conditions in and around Moscow.  So I feel 'at home' in this light." (quoted in J. Hahl-Koch, Kandinsky, Brussels, 1993, p. 356).