Romantic Landscape by Wassily Kandinsky

Romantic Landscape came about in 1911, at a time when the artist was focusing on producing scenes of the European countryside within his abstract style. Although his work developed onwards after this, many still prefer this period of his the most.

Russian artist Kandinsky had initially moved to Germany in the late 19th century and found a great love for the countryside. He produced a number of artworks in Bavaria, for example. He was working in an abstract manner by the time of Romantic Landscape in 1911, but his forms were still generally recognisable and it was only later that he moved further into a simplified format of just single shapes where reality was harder to connect with. That said, this particular artwork is not so easy to understand. We see the riders charging off to the left, as well as the bright red sun in the top left corner. There is a looseness to the brushwork which differs considerably from his later, precise, artworks and offers something quite different to the better known paintings that followed in later decades.

Whilst Kandinsky is now known by many as a landscape artist, much of his best work came within this genre. It was his alternative approach that led to many forgetting about the content itself and concentrating more on the abstract line and shapes that appeared later on, with reality being more and more lost on the viewer. When one considers popular Kandinsky prints you will notice that actually many of them are from this period of landscape paintings, which seems to have struck a real chord with the public.

This painting can be found at the Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Germany and is part of a large collection of related artworks that includes many more Kandinsky paintings as well as a number of connected artists who have been grouped together under the term of The Blue Rider. For example, you will find some of the most famous Franz Marc paintings here, as well as a number from Gabriele Munter, who herself had donated most of their selection from her own collection of work. This group of artworks form a major part of the institution's overall collection which promotes German art to the local audience and is a must-visit location for those in the city and with a passion for art history more generally.