Gabriele Münter

Gabriele Münter View of the mountains with yellow cloud 1934 Oil on canvas. 38.5 x 55.3 cm. Framed. Signed lower left gray 'Münter' and signed on the reverse of the stretcher with blue wax crayon, titled and dated 'Gabriele Münter Blick aufs Gebirge mit gelber Wolke 1934' and marked with the work number '101b / 34' (in a circle). - With retouching mainly on the mountain lines. The canvas slightly rubbed in spots at the edges of the stretcher. With a confirmation from Isabelle Jansen, Gabriele Münter- und Johannes Eichner-Stiftung, Munich, dated March 24, 2023. The painting is included in the catalog raisonné of Gabriele Münter's paintings published by the Gabriele Münter- und Johannes Eichner-Stiftung. The painting is listed in the artist's 1934 workbook under no. 101b. Provenance Private collection Franconia; Math. Lempertz'sche Kunstversteigerung, Cologne, Auction 515, Art of the XXth Century, April 29, 1971, Lot 779; Private collection Bavaria In the summer of 1909, the painter Gabriele Münter purchased a multi-story house surrounded by gardens in Murnau, Upper Bavaria. The locals called it the "Russian House" because, apart from Münter's companion Wassily Kandinsky, Marianne von Werefkin and Alexej Jawlensky also regularly stayed there. The area, known as the "blue country" due to its special climatic conditions, became Münter's favorite motif with its mountains, lakes and moor. In Murnau she developed her personal style and experienced a highly productive creative period. After the First World War and the separation from Kandinsky, she returned again and again to her haven of peace in Murnau. In 1931 she finally settled here with her new partner Johannes Eichner. In a return to the motifs and her style of the pre-war years, she created the painting "View of the Mountains with Yellow Cloud", dated 1934. Seen from an elevated vantage point, it shows the view of the Wetterstein Mountains with the triangular Eschenloher Kögl. Five tall trees push into the foreground from the right, their rusty brown foliage suggesting that Münter created the painting in the autumn months. With the pictorial means of the pre-war years, the black contoured picture surfaces and the strong colors, the main elements were outlined, so that she arrived "at feeling a content," as Münter wrote, "at abstracting and giving an extract" (quoted from: Der Blaue Reiter, exh. Cat. Kunsthalle Bremen, Cologne 2000, p. 122). Together with the motivically related "Blick aufs Gebirge" (Lenbachhaus, Munich) from the same year 1934, the Murnau landscape offered here is a major work of this creative period.