Oil on canvas, laid on cardboard
Signed and dated "2.VII.19" lower right. Inscribed "Münter" and "Vom weißen Busch" on verso as well as with estate stamp of the Gabriele Münter- and Johannes Eichner Foundation, Munich. 36 x 40,3 cm (14,1 x 15,8 in)Backing cardboard: 39,2 x 44 cm (15,4 x 17,3 in).
With remains of several labels on verso, partly typographically numbered.

Accompanied by a written expertise from the Gabriele Münter- and Johannes Eichner-Foundation dated 11 November 2010. The work is registered by the Gabriele Münter- and Johannes Eichner Foundation, Munich, under the no. B 122 and will be included into the catalog raisonné of paintings by Gabriele Münter.

PROVENANCE: From artist's estate.
Art shop Resch, Gauting (1978).
Galerie Thomas, Munich.
Private collection Southern Germany.

Gabriele Münter received her first art lessons at the 'Damen-Kunstschule' (Ladies Art School) in Düsseldorf and then attended the Society of Woman Artists as M. Dasio's and A. Jank's pupil. Then she went to Munich where she visited the private art school 'Phalanx' which was run by Wassily Kandinsky. In 1904 Münter and Kandinsky began travelling together: to Holland, Italy, France - where they met Rousseau and Matisse - and elsewhere. Stylistically she now distanced herself from Impressionism and her works began showing Fauve and Expressionist influences. In 1908 she and Kandinsky began leading a calmer life in their apartment in Munich. They often met with Klee, Marc, Macke, Jawlensky and Marianne von Werefkin. The country house Münter bought in Murnau provided an ideal working environment. In 1909 the artist began painting glass, a medium which would later also be adopted by Kandinsky, Marc, Macke and Campendonk. Münter was a member of the 'Neue Künstlervereinigung München' for two years and in 1911 she joined the 'Blaue Reiter', the artist group founded by Kandinsky and Marc. She was interested in Kandinsky's development towards abstract art, but her own works continued to be figurative. Her landscapes, figurative scenes and portraits show a reduction to the essential with an inclination towards humorous characterization. When war broke out, Münter and Kandinsky at first moved to Switzerland. Münter, however, decided a year later to go to Stockholm, where she separated from Kandinsky. In late autumn 1917 she moved to Copenhagen.

During her time in Scandinavia the style of Gabriele Münter changed fundamentally. Influenced by the Swedish avant-garde, which was geared at the decorative Expressionism of Matisse, Münter began to take on a cooler palette. The composition becomes more and more subject to a positive ‘Decorativism, which can also be observed in this work. The absence of objects with clear contours, a feature usually common for Münter lets the composition of the white blossoms sink into an almost sentimental atmosphere, which is, however, curbed by the leaves large color areas. The basic conception of Münter’s still lives of flowers can be clearly retraced in this work. Even though the botanic nature can be identified, the leaves lead a life of their own, both in terms of form and color. Embedded in a rich foliage the composition is space-filling and thus quite different from her later works, in which the blossoms are clearly contoured in front of a neutral background.

She travelled a lot during the 1920s and spent some time in Munich, Murnau, Cologne and Berlin. After 1931 she spent most of her time in Murnau and Munich. In 1956 she received the Culture Prize of the City of Munich. The year 1960 saw the first exhibition of Münter's work in the US, followed in 1961 by a large show in the Mannheim Kunsthalle. The artist died in her house at Murnau on 19 May 1962. [KD].