Friday 17 August 2012

Wassily Kandinsky - part 1

Wassily Kandinsky (1866 – 1944) was born in 1866 in Moscow. Between 1886 and 1892 he studied law and economics at the University of Moscow, where he lectured after graduation. In 1896 he declined a teaching position in order to study art in Munich with Anton Azbe from 1897 to 1899 and at the Kunstakademie with Franz von Stuck in 1900. Kandinsky taught between 1901 and 1903 at the art school of the Phalanx, a group he co-founded in Munich. One of his students, Gabriele Münter, would be his companion until 1914. In 1902 Kandinsky exhibited for the first time with the Berlin Secession and produced his first woodcuts. In 1903 and 1904 he began his travels in Italy, the Netherlands, and North Africa and his visits to Russia. He exhibited at the Salon d’Automne in Paris from 1904.

In 1909 Kandinsky was elected president of the newly founded Neue Künstlervereinigung München (NKVM). The group’s first show took place at Heinrich Thannhauser’s Moderne Galerie in Munich in 1909. In 1911 Kandinsky and Franz Marc began to make plans for Der Blaue Reiter Almanac, although the publication would not appear until the following year. Kandinsky’s On the Spiritual in Art was published in December 1911. He and Marc withdrew from the NKVM in that month, and shortly thereafter the Blaue Reiter group’s first exhibition was held at the Moderne Galerie. In 1912 the second Blaue Reiter show was held at the Galerie Hans Goltz, Munich. Kandinsky’s first solo show was held at Der Sturm gallery in Berlin in 1912. In 1913 one of his works was included in the Armory Show in New York and the Erste deutsche Herbstsalon at the Der Sturm gallery in Berlin. Kandinsky lived in Russia from 1914 to 1921, principally in Moscow, where he held a position at the People’s Commissariat of Education.

Kandinsky began teaching at the Bauhaus in Weimar in 1922. In 1923 he was given his first solo show in New York by the Société Anonyme, of which he became vice-president. Lyonel Feininger, Alexej Jawlensky, Kandinsky, and Paul Klee made up the Blaue Vier (Blue Four) group, formed in 1924. He moved with the Bauhaus to Dessau in 1925 and became a German citizen in 1928. The Nazi government closed the Bauhaus in 1933 and later that year Kandinsky settled in Neuilly-sur-Seine, near Paris; he acquired French citizenship in 1939. Fifty-seven of his works were confiscated by the Nazis in the 1937 purge of “degenerate art.” Kandinsky died on December 13 1944 in Neuilly-sur-Seine.

This is part 1 of a 4-part post on the works of Wassily Kandinsky. The works are shown in chronological order:


1901 Poster for First Phalanx Exhibition


1901 The Isar near Grosshessolohe 
oil on canvas 32.5 x 23.6 cm
The Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Munich
© 2012 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris

1903 Bride, Russian Beauty
tempera on cardboard 41.5 x 28.8 cm
The Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Munich
© 2012 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris

1903 Gabriele Munter Painting 
oil on canvas 58.5 x 58.5 cm
The Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Munich
© 2012 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris

c1903 Waldrand 
oil on canvas-board 23.8 x 32.8 cm
© 2012 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris

1904 Beach Baskets In Holland 
oil on cardboard 24 x 32.6 cm
© 2012 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris

1904 In the Forest 
26 x 19.8 cm
The Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Munich
© 2012 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris

1905 Arab City 
tempera on board 67.3 x 99.5 cm
© 2012 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris

1905 Portrait of Gabriele Münter 
oil on canvas 45 x 45 cm
The Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Munich
© 2012 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris


1905 Rapallo-Grauer Day 
oil on board 24 x 33 cm
© 2012 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris

1905 Rapallo, Boats 
oil on board 24 x 33 cm
© 2012 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris

1906 Park of St Cloud
oil on board 24 x 33 cm
© 2012 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris

1906 Rotterdam Sun 
oil on canvas
© 2012 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris

1906-07 Couple Riding 
oil on canvas 55 x 50.5 cm
© 2012 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris

1907 Colourful Life 
tempera on canvas 130 x 162.5 cm
The Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Munich
© 2012 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris

1908 Ahtyrka. Red Church
© 2012 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris

1908 Autumn Landscape with Boats 
oil on board 71 x 96.5 cm
© 2012 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris

1908 Autumn Study near Oberau 
oil on cardboard 32.8 x 44.5 cm
© 2012 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris

1908 Autumn near Murnau 
oil on board 32.3 x 40.9 cm
© 2012 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris

1908 Houses in Munich 
oil on cardboard 33 x 41 cm
© 2012 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris

1908 Houses in Murnau on Obermarkt 
oil on cardboard 33 x 41 cm
© 2012 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris

1908 Lake Starnberg 
oil on board 63 x 97.5 cm 
© 2012 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris

1908 Munich-Schwabing With The Church Of St. Ursula 
68.8 x 49 cm
© 2012 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris

1908 Murnau. Landscape with a Tower 
oil on canvas 75.5 x 99.5 cm
© 2012 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris

1908 Riegsee. The Village Church 
oil on canvas 33 x 45 cm
© 2012 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris

1908 View of Murnau
© 2012 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris

1908 White Sound 
oil on board 70 x 70 cm
© 2012 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris

1908-09 Blue Mountain 
oil on canvas 106 x 96.6 cm 
© 2012 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/ADAGP, Paris

1909 A Mountain 
oil on canvas 109 x 109 cm
© 2012 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris

1909 Cemetery and Vicarage in Kochel 
oil on cardboard
© 2012 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris

1909 Fate. Domes 
oil on canvas 83 x 116 cm
© 2012 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris

1909 Grungasse In Murnau 
oil on cardboard 33 x 44.6 cm
© 2012 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris

1909 Houses at Murnau 
oil on cardboard 49 x 64 cm 
© 2012 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris

1909 Improvisation 3
© 2012 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris

1909 Improvisation 6 ( African ) 
oil on canvas 107 x 99.5 cm
© 2012 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris

1909 Interior ( My Dining Room ) 
oil on cardboard
© 2012 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris

1909 Murnau View With Railway And Castle 
oil on cardboard 36 x 49 cm
© 2012 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris

Wednesday 15 August 2012

Back views of women in art


It has occurred to me during the process of researching this blog that quite a number of realist painters have portrayed women at one time or another from a rear viewpoint – often in a domestic situation. Danish artists like Anna Ancher, Vilhelm Hammershøi and Carl Holsøe frequently employed this device in their compositions. The female subject may at some small domestic labour, or simply being contemplative, gazing out onto some unseen vista. Here are some examples:


1822 Woman at the Window
oil on canvas 44 x 73 cm

1880 Berthe Morisot 
The Dining Room of the Rouart Family, Avenue d'Eylau 
oil on canvas 92 x 73 cm

c1880 Edgar Degas 
Mary Cassatt at the Louvre 
pastel

1882 Christian Krohg 
The Hair is Braided

1883 Anna Ancher 
Girl in Kitchen 
oil on canvas 87.7 x 68.5 cm

1885 Edgar Degas 
A Visit to the Museum

c1885 Edgar Degas 
Three Women at the Races 
pastel 68.6 x 68.6 cm

1886 Berthe Morisot 
The Little Maid Servant 
oil on canvas 71 x 44 cm

1887 Anna Ancher
Young Girl before a Lighted Lamp
oil on canvas

1888 Vilhelm Hammershøi 
Peasant Reading 
oil on canvas 63.5 x 55.5 cm

1890 Vilhelm Hammershøi 
Bedroom 
73 x 58 cm

1896 Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec 
Woman in a Corset 
chalk on paper

1899 Vilhelm Hammershøi 
Interior

c1900 Carl Holsøe

c1900 Carl Holsøe
Girl Reading in a Sunlit Room

1905 Vilhelm Hammershøi 
Rest 
49.5 x 46.5 cm

c1910 Frederick Carl Frieseke 
The Birdcage 
oil on canvas 78.7 x 78.7 cm

1912-13 Frederick C. Frieseke 
Blue Interior 
oil on canvas 81.3 x 81.3 cm

1920 Henri Lebasque 
The Blue Robe 
oil on canvas 81 x 65 cm
c1885 A Young Girl Arranging Flowers 
oil on canvas 56 x 41 cm

Anna Ancher 
Girl in the Kitchen

Anna Ancher

Carl Holsøe

Carl Holsøe
The Artist's Wife Setting the Table
oil on canvas 73 x 65 cm

Carl Holsøe 
Mother and Child by a Window 
oil on canvas 78.7 x 76.2 cm

Vilhelm Hammershøi 
Lady Reading in an Interior

Anna Ancher 
Young Woman in Front of a Mirror

Carl Holsøe 
Waiting by the Window

Carl Holsøe 
A Lady Playing the Spinet

Carl Holsøe 
A Lady Playing the Piano

Carl Holsøe 
Lamplight

Carl Holsøe
The Artist's Wife in an Interior
oil on board

Carl Holsøe
Clearing Away the Tray
oil on canvas 74.6 x 67.6 cm

Carl Holsøe
Interior with the Artists'a Wife
oil on canvas

Carl Holsøe Afternoon Tea
oil on canvas 40 x 29.2 cm