This landscape was inspired by Alpine views near the town of Murnau in Upper Bavaria where Gabriele Münter, Kandinsky’s companion, bought a house in 1909. We see here how the artist liberates the colour from its descriptive function and brings out the hidden expressive meaning. Referring to the title of the painting, it is appropriate to remember that Kandinsky, when discussing the color red, said that it actively “opens” toward the viewer in contrast to, for example, “closed” cold blue. As for the forms, there is also a shift toward vagueness: in the works of this period, objects are still discernible, but the trend toward abstraction is already evident.

Timeline

1896 1897 1898 1899 1900 1901 1902 1903 1904 1905 1906 1907 1908 1909 1910 1911 1912 1913 1914 1915 1916 1917 1918 1919 1920 1921 1922 1923 1924 1925 1926 1927 1928 1929 1930 1931 1932 1933 1934 1935 1936 1937 1938 1939 1940 1941 1942 1943 1944