Gabriele Münter

Gabriele was born in Berlin, 1877. She was left without a father at age 9, and when she was 22 - without a mother. When she met Kandinsky she had been two years in America in the company of her sister and with the album drawing. They traveled everywhere. Coming back in Germany, Gabriel had not been able to find where to go to learn more - the girls were not taken all the art schools. Finally, in 1902, she received an offer to join the Union of women - artists in Munich. And she went there. Visiting the exhibition company "Phalanx" and a school of the same name, has decided to enroll directly into two classes: the sculptural class of Huysgen and pictorial of Vasily Kandinsky.

When the young Gabriele Münter appeared in Kandinsky's art class, she was 25 years old, and he was – 36, and he was married Anna Chemyakina, a cousin on his father's side. She was older than him for six years. In 1902, their marriage was to Anna for 10 years. It was substantial and critical period. Sure, Kandinsky initially attracted Gabriel as an interesting teacher. In her diaries, she wrote that he took her as a person having a conscious endeavor. Apparently, he won the heart of the young artist. She also won him her composure, confidence - those traits that were lacking most of Kandinsky. Thus began their friendship, trust fellowship of kindred spirits, which grew into love.

They both seemed to be confused by the fact that Kandinsky was married. One year later, in 1903, they got engaged. The secretive life began, they were together traveling, each separately turned in Germany. At this time, the post-impressionistic paintings were born under Kandinsky’s brush. In this style, he has created two portraits of Gabriele Münter - in 1903 and 1905. In the first portrait was shows a girl at the easel. She paints from life, in the yard, strewn with autumn leaves. In the second portrait, made two years later, you can see the serious and thoughtful look of an young woman. Expressive eyes reflect a sea of thoughts and feelings: they both love and sadness, and dumb question for the artist and spectators.

In the summer 1906 they rented a house in Paris. However, Kandinsky soon realized that this city is alien to him, and he wanted to leave. But Gabriele resisted his departure: she wanted to stay in Paris. She enrolled in a course of drawing with brush. Finally she found her own unique style, defined as a painter. Of course, she was pleased to that, and opposed to the sad results of her personal life: she was already 30, she spent five years next to Kandinsky, and he was still married to another. Summer of 1908, the couple spent together in the town Murnau in Bavaria. That summer was a turning point in the work of Kandinsky, giving rise to a new stage - the stage of abstract art. The following year, Kandinsky and Münter in Murnau bought a house and lived there openly. It was an active creative period for both. However, at the same time, their union of love gradually began to turn only in the union of two like-minded people. Everyone was looking for myself in the arts, in business. Kandinsky was a boom in Münter, but her things went smoothly.

In 1911 Kandinsky officially divorced from Anna. With the outbreak of the World War II a couple traveled to Switzerland. Then Kandinsky left Münter in Zurich, and he went to Moscow. Their break was predetermined, though perhaps this and did not say out loud. Münter still hoped to legitimize the relationship, but Kandinsky this situation distressing. In winter 1915 they met again in Stockholm. Wassily hadn’t the courage to break up with Gabriele opened. In the spring of 1916 he left, promising to do papers for marriage. And in the winter of 1917, he married. But - not to Gabriele, and the Nina Andreevsky, whom he met in Moscow for half a year before. He didn’t tell to Münter about the wedding, ... Münter unsuccessfully tried to find him,she wrote letters, but they were ignored. Only four years later, in 1921, he was on the phone - through his lawyer. Kandinsky demanded him back his belongings and paintings. Of the items she brought back, some stayed to her as "moral damages."

After parting with Kandinsky Münter abandoned art, trying to find myself in something else. By drawing she back only 10 years after escapement of Kandinsky in 1927. However, she continued to lead a secluded life, few people are admitting to herself. In the years of fascism when objectless "degenerate" art was outlawed, the archive and the work of Kandinsky, she hid in the basement of his house, risking serious. In 1957, Münter gave his archive to Munich, Stadtische Galerie in Lenbach. Gabriele Münter died in 1962, having survived his teacher and frustrated husband of nearly 18 years.

Gabriele Münter's works

"Wassily Kandinsky", 1906


"Yavlensky and Verevkin", 1908


"Kandinsky and Erma Bossi", 1912


"Meditation", 1917


"Russian house", 1931


"Kandinsky, painting a landscape", 1903


"Kandinsky"