The Birth of Expressionism - Wassily Kandinsky and Gabriele Münter in Murnau
This small yet tremendously vibrant landscape was made in Oberau, south of Murnau, in 1908–09. After four years of traveling—with stops in Italy, France, and Tunis—Gabriele Münter and Wassily Kandinsky had just returned to Munich in early June. By mid-month, the two set off again, this time to visit Salzburg. In fact, they were searching for a place close to the Alps that would offer a stimulating environment. Kandinsky had visited Murnau as early as 1904. It is documented that Kandinsky and his partner at the time, Gabriele Münter, stayed at the Griesbräu in Murnau between August 8 and September 30.
Murnau and the surrounding Blue Land captured their hearts, and they eventually found their inspiring home: in June 1909, Gabriele Münter purchased the so-called “Russen Haus” (Russian House).
When Wassily Kandinsky and Gabriele Münter—initially together with Alexej von Jawlensky and Marianne von Werefkin—painted in and around the Upper Bavarian town, something astonishing was taking place: an artistic upheaval, a radical break with the Impressionist and Post-Impressionist styles, and a turn toward a synthetic, expressive style of color painting.

The Blue Land and Kandinsky’s journey into abstraction
Oberau is located slightly south of Murnau in the Loisach Valley. According to postcards he sent to his then-student and lover Münter, Kandinsky first visited the area in 1904. At the time, he was on a cycling trip in pouring rain: "... my rubber collar was completely soaked, and my backpack only protected my back from the rain. And yet it was beautiful! I saw incredibly beautiful things in the mountains: the low clouds moving slowly, the gloomy dark-violet forest, the dazzling white buildings, the velvety roofs of the churches—I can still see the lush green foliage with my mind's eye. I even dreamed of these things" (Postcard from Kandinsky to G. Münter, quoted from: B. Salmen/A. Hoberg, around 1908 – Kandinsky, Münter, Jawlensky, and Werefkin in Murnau, Murnau 2008, p. 20).
In 1908, he returned to Oberau during his summer vacation. As his paintings show, the town was not solely agricultural in character at that time: “Autumn Study near Oberau” (Roethel/Benjamin 248), today at the Lenbachhaus in Munich, dates from the same year, 1908.


Two years later, in 1910, he painted ‘Landscape with Factory Chimney’ (Roethel/Benjamin 343), which is in the Guggenheim Museum in New York today. It depicts a view of Oberau featuring the Kienzerle & Kie cardboard factory.


The present work depicts a bridge crossing the Loisach River just south of Oberau. There is a slide beneath the bridge that was used to load rafts with wood and gypsum bound for Munich. The mountain silhouette, rendered in an array of blue and purple hues, dominates the horizon, leaving only a little space for the radiant pink sky. The effect is enhanced by the warm, luminous yellow-orange of the meadow, the trees in shades of green, orange, and black, as well as the Loisach River and the bridge, which echo the blue and purple tones. The scene is reduced to a few forms through broad, long brushstrokes; the choice of colors is unbound by convention or naturalistic accuracy. The sense of perspective is also minimized. Kandinsky's works from this period mark his determined journey toward complete independence from descriptive form and color. “Near Oberau” shows how the landscape of the Blue Land inspired Kandinsky: he absorbed the landscape around Murnau to the fullest and experimented with it. He repeatedly pointed out how important landscape painting was to him. For Kandinsky, the works created in 1908 and 1909 remained relevant for many years; he repeatedly noted in his writings that essential inspiration for his further development stemmed from these landscapes of his early years in Murnau. He frequently used the 33 x 45 cm cardboard format for outdoor painting, as it had ideal dimensions for a portable easel, making it the perfect medium for his highly regarded plein-air works. Some of the works created this way were later reproduced in larger formats. Many of these paintings, created on site, are not listed in the artist’s inventories. For many years, they were stored in Gabriele Münter’s “Russenhaus” in Murnau.
Kandinsky primarily spent the summer months there; his extended stays in Murnau ultimately served as the nucleus for the later Blue Rider group. Franz Marc lived in Sindelsdorf, and Jawlensky frequently visited Kandinsky and Münter. The composer Thomas von Hartmann, with whom Kandinsky collaborated on stage projects, lived in nearby Kochel.


Peculiar confusion – Twists and Turns
As a Russian citizen, Kandinsky was forced to leave Germany shortly after the outbreak of World War I in 1914. The artist couple initially left Murnau for a short stay in Zurich. Kandinsky then traveled on to Moscow and, contrary to all the promises he had made to Gabriele Münter, his partner in Murnau, he would not return to Murnau nor to her. The works he had to leave behind—including our painting—ultimately remained in Gabriele Münter’s possession.
It was only through the generous bequest of her estate to the Lenbachhaus in Munich that the city of Munich came to own the invaluable collection of works by Wassily Kandinsky. Some of these works were sold through select galleries in the first few years following the transfer. Among those galleries was Aenne Abels in Cologne. The notation “'77 Abels” appears on a photograph available to Hans Roethel and Jean Benjamin during their work on the catalogue raisonné. Unfortunately, it is no longer possible to reconstruct every detail of our work’s history today. However, this painting was certainly featured in an exhibition at the Leonard Hutton Gallery in New York as early as 1961, where it was mistakenly displayed as a work by Gabriele Münter rather than Wassily Kandinsky due to its connection to the Lenbachhaus. This erroneous attribution persisted over the following years. In 1963, it was sold at Parke-Bernet in New York as “Gabriele Münter, Mountain Rill,” and in 1968, it was sold again as “Gabriele Münter, Bergstrom (A Mountain Stream).” It was only the current owner who became aware of Wassily Kandinsky’s authorship and of the entry for our work “Bei Oberau” (Near Oberau) as number “262” in the Catalogue Raisonné of Oil Paintings, published by Hans Roethel and Jean Benjamin in 1982. They date our work to 1908 and list it as “location unknown.” This is not surprising, since it had been erroneously attributed to Gabriele Münter since 1961 and was therefore no longer traceable to them.

In the course of our research, we confirmed that our painting “Bei Oberau” was not exhibited at any of the Münter exhibitions listed in Parke-Bernet’s catalog.

However, this makes another, previously overlooked detail all the more significant: there is a small label on the reverse of our painting bearing the stamped number “236”. This number corresponds to an entry in the Gabriele Münter and Johannes Eichner Foundation’s collection today. It was likely compiled at the Münter House in Murnau in 1958. The entry reads “Kandinsky, Nature Study in Oberau.” This allows the painting to be correctly attributed once again after many years.
The luminous, expressive coloration, the powerful presence of the landscape, and the freedom of form have always spoken Kandinsky’s language.[EH]