Improvisation Gorge
1914 · Oil on canvas · Lenbachhaus, Munich
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About this work
- Artist
- Wassily Kandinsky (1866–1944)
- Year
- 1914
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Original size
- 110 × 110 cm
- Collection
- Lenbachhaus, Munich
- Movement
- Abstract art
Bright fragments in yellow, turquoise, red and violet spin out from the centre of a square canvas, with ladders, striped bands, fringed arcs and a white cascade at the lower right. Among them, half hidden, are a small couple in Bavarian dress, a boat and a landing stage, traces of an outing to a mountain gorge. Kandinsky painted it in the summer of 1914 after an excursion with Gabriele Münter to the Höllental gorge in the Bavarian Alps, and it is among the last pictures he made in Munich before the outbreak of the First World War forced him to leave Germany. The line between landscape and abstraction is very thin here: the motifs are present but scattered and turned, swallowed by colour. The painting stayed with Münter and came to the Lenbachhaus in Munich with her gift of 1957.
This print reproduces the whole work, uncropped, from a high-resolution scan of the original. The original is in the public domain.
Where it works
A whirl of yellow, turquoise, red and violet with ladders and a white cascade, for a living room, playroom or entrance hall at 24×36 in natural wood. A white or warm cream wall; it pairs with Improvisation 30 (Cannons).
Style, size & framing detail
- Style
- Abstract art painting
- Era
- 20th century (1914)
- Orientation
- Portrait
- Mood
- classic
- Rooms
- living room, dining room
- Good gift for
- housewarming, art lovers
Size. We'd hang this one at 24×36. Prints at 12×18, 16×24, 24×36 in — 12×18 for a shelf, desk or a gallery-wall grid; 16×24 above a desk, console or in a hallway; 24×36 as the statement piece above a sofa or bed.
Framing. The gallery ground is part of the print, so frame it without a mat — natural wood flatters the lighter palette; black sharpens it.
Pairing. Pairs as a set of three with other famous painting prints (10% off three or more).
Details & materials
Shipping & returns
Is this the whole painting, or a crop?
Is Improvisation Gorge in the public domain?
What is it printed on?
When was Improvisation Gorge painted, and in what medium?
What size works above a sofa or bed?
About this design
The Madten promise
An exhibition poster
The same artwork as a gallery exhibition poster — title, artist & date typeset beneath the image on a soft ground.





























