Munich - The Isar

Munich - The Isar, painted in 1901 and held at the Lenbachhaus museum in Munich, depicts the River Isar that flows through the heart of the city where Kandinsky was studying at the time. The Lenbachhaus holds the world's most comprehensive collection of Kandinsky's early Munich work, assembled from the bequest of Gabriele Münter, his companion during this period. The Isar was a familiar subject for Munich painters, and Kandinsky's version from 1901 belongs to his most conservative phase, before his experiments with symbolism and historical subject matter began in earnest.

River subjects offered Kandinsky the opportunity to work with reflected colour and the movement of water—concerns that would become important in his mature abstract work. In 1901 he handled these through direct observation, using varied horizontal strokes for the water surface and the characteristic Post-Impressionist palette of warm-cool contrasts.