Oil on canvas. With two estate stamps and inscribed “L. 341” in chalk and “92” in blue by a hand other than that of the artist on the reverse. Stretcher with a label with the partly handwritten, partly stamped estate number “L 341” and a label with the stamped number “1337”. 45 x 38 cm. The work is registered in the artist's estate under the number L 341. - Münter transforms the landscape genre into a modern, highly abstract color painting. - Blue is the spiritual color of the Blue Rider. - Quintessence of Münter's deep fascination with the “Blue Land”. - Currently, Münter is honored at the Tate Modern, London, and with a solo exhibition in the Thyssen-Bornemisza collection in Madrid. Accompanied by a written authentication issued by the Gabriele Münter and Johannes Eichner Foundation, Munich, dated October 1, 2013. The work will be included in the catalogue raisonné of paintings by Gabriele Münter. LITERATURE: Ketterer Kunst, Munich, A 409 Modern Art, June 6, 2013, lot 339.
Galerie Gunzenhauser, Münter - Frühe Ölbilder, Munich, until April 30, 1971
From the artist's estate. Private collection, Southern Germany. Private collection, Berlin Private collection, Hesse (from the above in 2013, Ketterer Kunst)
This painting combines everything that Murnau meant to Gabriele Münter. "Der blaue Berg" (The Blue Mountain) was created in 1930. Around this time, following a challenging personal period, she returned to her “Russen-Haus” (the “Russian House”), which she had bought in 1909 when she was with Wassily Kandinsky. The place provided the setting for an artistic breakthrough and a brief period of personal fulfillment. However, breaking up with Kandinsky in 1914 and the disappointed hope of a reunion led to difficult years. Only through her relationship with Dr. Johannes Eichner, whom she met in Berlin at the end of 1927, the artist regained personal balance. It was Eichner who encouraged her to return to this special place. Hence, “Blauer Berg” can be understood as a welcome picture. She turned to the mountain motif that spread out right in front of her house, choosing this cone-shaped mountain and placing it prominently in the center of the picture. In this 'welcome picture,' she consciously revisited compositions of the 'Blue Rider' period and the early days in the Blue Land. The view over the Murnau Marshes to the mountains has always been a central motif for the artist. In the painting “Blauer Kegelberg,” Gabriele Münter adopts an abstract composition. Münter reduces the landscape to distinct planes of color. There is no staffage, such as trees or houses. She presents the solid, calm landscape clearly and concisely. It may also represent a return to her roots in her early days in Murnau when she was deeply involved with reverse glass painting and the emotional impact of these rural votive pictures. In this two-dimensional representation, Münter attempted to capture the scene and the spiritual essence of nature and her emotions. The mighty blue that recurs in variations in the distance not only represents the typical hue of the mountains in the so-called 'Blue Land' but can also be associated with the meaning that Kandinsky formulated in his essay 'The Spiritual in Art': “This gift of deepening we find in the blue [...]. The deeper the blue becomes, the more it calls man into infinity, awakening a longing for the pure and, ultimately, the transcendental. It is the color of the sky as we imagine it from the sound of the word heaven” (quoted from: W. Kandinsky, Concerning the Spiritual in Art, Munich 1912, p. 77). [EH]
Condition report on request katalogisierung@kettererkunst.de
Lot Details
Oil on canvas. With two estate stamps and inscribed “L. 341” in chalk and “92” in blue by a hand other than that of the artist on the reverse. Stretcher with a label with the partly handwritten, partly stamped estate number “L 341” and a label with the stamped number “1337”. 45 x 38 cm. The work is registered in the artist's estate under the number L 341. - Münter transforms the landscape genre into a modern, highly abstract color painting. - Blue is the spiritual color of the Blue Rider. - Quintessence of Münter's deep fascination with the “Blue Land”. - Currently, Münter is honored at the Tate Modern, London, and with a solo exhibition in the Thyssen-Bornemisza collection in Madrid. Accompanied by a written authentication issued by the Gabriele Münter and Johannes Eichner Foundation, Munich, dated October 1, 2013. The work will be included in the catalogue raisonné of paintings by Gabriele Münter. LITERATURE: Ketterer Kunst, Munich, A 409 Modern Art, June 6, 2013, lot 339.
Galerie Gunzenhauser, Münter - Frühe Ölbilder, Munich, until April 30, 1971
From the artist's estate. Private collection, Southern Germany. Private collection, Berlin Private collection, Hesse (from the above in 2013, Ketterer Kunst)
This painting combines everything that Murnau meant to Gabriele Münter. "Der blaue Berg" (The Blue Mountain) was created in 1930. Around this time, following a challenging personal period, she returned to her “Russen-Haus” (the “Russian House”), which she had bought in 1909 when she was with Wassily Kandinsky. The place provided the setting for an artistic breakthrough and a brief period of personal fulfillment. However, breaking up with Kandinsky in 1914 and the disappointed hope of a reunion led to difficult years. Only through her relationship with Dr. Johannes Eichner, whom she met in Berlin at the end of 1927, the artist regained personal balance. It was Eichner who encouraged her to return to this special place. Hence, “Blauer Berg” can be understood as a welcome picture. She turned to the mountain motif that spread out right in front of her house, choosing this cone-shaped mountain and placing it prominently in the center of the picture. In this 'welcome picture,' she consciously revisited compositions of the 'Blue Rider' period and the early days in the Blue Land. The view over the Murnau Marshes to the mountains has always been a central motif for the artist. In the painting “Blauer Kegelberg,” Gabriele Münter adopts an abstract composition. Münter reduces the landscape to distinct planes of color. There is no staffage, such as trees or houses. She presents the solid, calm landscape clearly and concisely. It may also represent a return to her roots in her early days in Murnau when she was deeply involved with reverse glass painting and the emotional impact of these rural votive pictures. In this two-dimensional representation, Münter attempted to capture the scene and the spiritual essence of nature and her emotions. The mighty blue that recurs in variations in the distance not only represents the typical hue of the mountains in the so-called 'Blue Land' but can also be associated with the meaning that Kandinsky formulated in his essay 'The Spiritual in Art': “This gift of deepening we find in the blue [...]. The deeper the blue becomes, the more it calls man into infinity, awakening a longing for the pure and, ultimately, the transcendental. It is the color of the sky as we imagine it from the sound of the word heaven” (quoted from: W. Kandinsky, Concerning the Spiritual in Art, Munich 1912, p. 77). [EH]
Condition report on request katalogisierung@kettererkunst.de
Gabriele Münter 
