German painter Gabriele Münter moved to the rural village of Murnau with fellow artist Vassily Kandinsky in 1908. They rented and decorated a house together in the southern Bavarian town, while frequently entertaining visits from fellow artists and friends Alexei Jawlensky and Franz Marc. Inspired by folk art of the region, this group of artists experimented with a brightly colored palette, loose and vigorous brushwork and a simplified handling of form. Scenes of the local village and surrounding landscape were frequent subjects; this work captures Murnau’s main street under the sweeping light of dusk or dawn. Münter felt that her style transformed during this period as, in her own words, the countryside inspired her to “take a great leap forward . . . to abstraction, feeling the content, the essence of things.”
Details
- Artist Name: Gabriele Münter (German, 1877-1962)
- Title: Lower Main Street, Murnau
- Date: 1910
- Medium: Oil on textured cardboard
- Dimensions: 16 1/4 x 13 3/8 in. (41.3 x 34.0 cm)
- Credit Line: Norton Simon Museum, Gift of Mr. David Gensburg
- Accession Number: P.1970.19
- Copyright: © Gabriele Münter / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn
Object Information
Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus (Städtische Münter- und Johannes Eichner-Stiftung).
Private Collection, Northamptonshire, England, by 1960 (sale, Bern, Kornfeld und Klipstein, 11 June 1969, lot 951, for Sf 34,000, to);
O. P. Reed.
David Gensburg, Beverly Hills, California, gift December 1970 to;
Pasadena Art Museum, 1970-1975;
Norton Simon Museum.
The Blue Rider Group: An Exhibition sponsored by teh Edinburgh Festival Society and arranged jointly with the Royal Scottish Academy and the Arts Council of Great Britain
- Scottish Royal Academy, 1960 to 1960
German Expressionist Painting and Sculptures from California Collections
- Pasadena Museum of Modern Art, 1974-04-16 to 1974-06-02
Der Sturm
- Berlin, to
Permanent and Loan Collection, 1973
- Pasadena Museum of Modern Art, 1973-01-30 to 1973-12-31
- Kornfeld und Klipstein, Moderne Kunst, Des Neunzehnten und Zwanzigsten Jahrhunderts, 1969,
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