Gabriele Münter Painting

Wassily Kandinsky's 'Gabriele Münter Painting' (1903) depicts his companion and colleague in the act of painting — the portrait of the artist at work as both an intimate personal subject and a statement about the creative act and the female painter's place within it. Kandinsky and Münter traveled together throughout Europe and worked in parallel on the development of the avant-garde approach that would lead to Kandinsky's eventual abstraction. This early portrait shows him still working in a representational mode heavily influenced by Post-Impressionist and Jugendstil sources.

Kandinsky renders Münter at her easel with the decorative color and bold formal organization that characterized his pre-abstract work — the figure engaged in the act of painting given a stylized quality that already moved beyond conventional naturalistic portraiture toward the flattened, coloristic approach he was developing. His handling of the outdoor setting and light has the decorative boldness of his Murnau period, the colors simplified and the forms organized for visual impact rather than atmospheric accuracy.