"There is a divine spark in you, something incredibly rare in painters. And your natural talent is enough on its own. Your swaying line and sense of color!"
Wassily Kandinsky to Gabriele Münter, Moscow, November 1915.

Gabriele Münter visited Elmau on several occasions. Today, Elmau Palace is remembered as the venue of the 2015 G7 summit, which took place against an impressive mountain backdrop. The building, today a hotel, was built by the theologian and philosopher Johannes Müller in 1912. He had initially purchased a property in the middle of nowhere to create a conference center with the financial support of Elsa von Michael (née Haniel). It was a colorful mixture of the mindsets of the time that determined the daily routine and seminars at Schloss Elmau. We don't know whether it was the free interpretation of his religious-intellectual thoughts or the chamber concerts, the healthy food, and not least, the mountain landscape around Elmau that made Gabriele Münter visit this place again and again. What is certain is that Gabriele Münter was a guest here several times over an extended period, and during these visits, she impressively captured the surrounding landscape.



Our painting offers an unobstructed view of the snow-covered Alpspitze over the spring-like meadows. It provides an atmospheric account of an imminent spring. The back of the painting provides an exact indication of the creation of the work. "29. XII. 32" is noted. After separating from Wassily Kandinsky, Gabriele Münter initially lived in Scandinavia, but in the 1920s, she returned to Germany several times. She wrote that she had lost touch with the art world in Germany." When I returned, I remained a stranger and hardly made a move to assert myself again. I didn't paint much during my wandering life in boarding rooms - among others in Cologne and Berlin. Still, in the decade from 20 to 30, I quietly cultivated drawing in my sketchbook," writes Gabriele Münter, looking back after her return to Germany in the late 1920s (quoted from: Annegret Hoberg, Gabriele Münter, Munich 2016, p. 48).

In 1927, Gabriele Münter met Johannes Eichner, through whom she found personal support and encouragement again. From 1931, she lived in Murnau again. The artist sees her expressive concept of landscape in the works that deal with the landscape around Elmau. Here, the roughness and sublimity of the mountains come more to the fore than in her Murnau landscapes of the Blue Land. The spring-like sense of awakening in the painting seems to correspond with Gabriele Münter's arrival and new beginning in the Blue Land after years of restless wandering, which makes this piece one of the most extraordinary paintings in her oeuvre. [EH]