Wege ins Moos. Wohl 1930s.
Oil on fibreboard.
Verso with estate stamp. There also with a sticker with stamped number "978" and a sticker with partly stamped number and partly hand-written number "L 43", an inscription in chalk "L. 434" as well as with a dedication by a hand other than that of the artist from 13 January, 1970. 27,2 x 35,3 cm (10,7 x 13,8 in).

Accompanied by a written confirmation issued by Gabriele Münter- and Johannes Eichner-Foundation, Munich, dated 22 October, 2013.

PROVENANCE: Galerie Gunzenhauser, 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 characterisation. 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. 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.

Gabriele Münter experienced a period of great productivity in Murnau as of 1931, making a large number of paintings and watercolors, mostly of still lives and landscapes. Just as it was the case during the days of the "Blauer Reiter", the landscape motifs are once more conceived "large and simple", as Münter calls it. Flowing contours enclose the color fields, the application of the paint and the composition itself are more homogeneous than in her earlier period of creation. In this work she shows a view over hills in spring up to peaks still covered with snow. It was the changing atmospheres that inspired Gabriele Münter.

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. [EH].