×
![]()
1896
At the age of thirty, Kandinsky resolved to abandon a promising legal career and devote himself entirely to art. He turned down a position at the prestigious University of Dorpat (now the University of Tartu in Estonia). He later recalled that this decision was profoundly influenced by two experiences: his visit to the 1895 exhibition of French Impressionists in Moscow — in particular, one of Claude Monet's Haystacks paintings from the series executed between 1888 and 1891 — and a performance of Wagner's Lohengrin at the Bolshoi Theatre. In December of that year, he moved to Munich, then one of the leading artistic centers of Europe at the turn of the century.