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Gabriele Münter (1877 Berlin - 1962 Murnau). Bäume am Hagenweg, Abend. 1931 Oil on cardboard. Signed and dated lower left. Once more signed as well as inscribed with the work number '61/31' on the reverse.33 x 45 cm (12,9 x 17,7 in). Verso: Sitzender Mann (Johannes Eichner?). Oil study.The following annotation can be found in the artist's work sheet from 1931 under no. 61: '5 X/ Bäume am Hagenweg. Abend n. nat.'Expertise: This work is accompanied by a photo expertise signed by Prof. Dr. Helmut Friedel, Gabriele Münter- und Johannes Eichner-Stiftung, Munich, and dated 17 October 2007. The painting witll be included in the catalogue raisonné of paintings, prepared by Dr. Isabelle Jansen Provenienz: Private collection North Germany (acquired directly from the artist). Between 1901 and 1903, Gabriele Münter 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. Münter was a member of the 'Neue Künstlervereinigung München' for two years and in 1911 she joined the 'Blaue Reiter'. 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. Falling into a creative block after her break-off with Kandinsky, she did not resume painting until the 1930s. After 1931 she spent most of her time in Murnau and Munich. The moods of nature in the Murnau countryside surrounding her were particularly appealing to Gabriele Münter. The light of the dying day in a sky of pink and purplish tones gives our landscape its distinctive note. Münter has spontaneously caught this mood and worked it up with the assurance that is all her own. The beautiful curve of the tree-lined road, which leads visually into the depths of the picture space, is counterbalanced by the broad surface of the meadow. The artist's mastery is shown in her handling of the form and colour of this vast meadow; she has neither chopped it up and confined it to the foreground nor left it as a smooth surface. The foreground has been raised high on the picture surface, a structuring device that may recall Jugendstil/Art Nouveau yet here it is a particularly fine example of the artist's skill at composition. 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. [KD]In good condition, colours still fresh. Edges minimally bumped as well as barely noticeably rubbed all along, there also with a few tiny colour chippings. Lower edge irregularly trimmed. An originally overpainted notch in the cardboard on the left of the centre.