Rose with Gray

Original Language TitleRosa mit Grau

Artist Vasily Kandinsky (French, born Russia, 1866 - 1944)

Date1924

MediumOil on pulpboard

DimensionsUnframed: 23 9/16 × 19 1/8 inches (59.85 × 48.58 cm)
Framed: 34 9/16 × 30 3/8 × 1 13/16 inches (87.79 × 77.15 × 4.6 cm)

Credit LineGift of the Friends of Art

Object numberF62-9

Signedl.l.: artist's monogram "V K 24"

InscribedReverse: In Kandinsky's hand, in black ink: " (A left-pointing V followed by a K) No 277 1924 -Rosa mit Grau- 485 x 595 " (dimensions also written in pencil above this) Translation: Pink with Gray 48.5 cm x 59.5 cm In Nina Kandinsky's hand, in pencil: "En souvenir de Kandinsky pour Monsieur Thomas de Hartmann et pour Madame Olga de Hartmann avec mes amitiés affecteuses Nina Kandinsky Decembre 1945 Neuilly Fr." Translation: In memory of Kandinsky for Mr. Thomas de Hartmann and for Mrs. Olga de Hartmann in fond friendship Nina Kandinsky December 1945 Neuilly Fr.

On View

On view

Gallery Location

Collections

Modern Art

Terms

DescriptionUmber ground dominated by pink corcle, top center, flanked and interpenetrated by partial segments and rectangles in black, gray, green, and rust; corssed, lower right, by long, thin triangle in gray and blue, thin zigzag in black and brown crossed diagonally by a sawtoothed bar. Dark green rectangle, lower left with sawtooth pattern above at margin; black quadrant, upper left with border of green and purple. Upper right, pink-edged white scallop design at margin. Various triangles and crescents in polychrome scattered about. Large black polygon, lower center, attached to left-margin rectangle with a crescent and topped by thin red triange.Gallery Label

Gallery Label

In Vasily Kandinsky’s Rose with Gray, piercing forms explode on a golden field, visually depicting the power of creative energy. Kandinsky had a condition known as synesthesia. When he saw colors, he heard sounds, and when he heard sounds, he saw colors. In his book Concerning the Spiritual in Art (1911), he wrote, "Color is the keyboard, the eyes are the hammers, the soul is the piano with many strings. The artist is the hand which plays, touching one key or another, to cause vibrations in the soul." Kandinsky painted Rose with Gray while teaching at the Bauhaus in Weimar, Germany.

Provenance

The artist (1866-1944), Berlin and Paris, 1924-1944;

Inherited by his wife, Nina Kandinsky (1893-1980), Paris, 1944-December 1945;

Her gift to Thomas (1885-1956) and Olga Arkadievna (née de Schumacher, d. 1979) de Hartmann, Paris and New York, December 1945-1956 [1];

Olga Arkadievna (née de Schumacher, d. 1979) de Hartmann, Paris and New York, 1956-at least 1958;

Purchased from Olga de Hartmann by The New Gallery, Inc., New York, after 1958-1962 [2];

Purchased from The New Gallery by the Friends of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1962;

Their gift to The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1962.

NOTES:

[1] An inscription on the back of the painting, in Nina Kandinsky’s hand, reads: “En souvenir de Kandinsky pour Monsieur Thomas de Hartmann et pour Madame Olga de Hartmann avec mes amitiés affecteuses. Nina Kandinsky Decembre 1945 Neuilly Fr.”

[2] According to Frank Strasser, E. V. Thaw and Co., Inc., in a letter to Charles S. Moffett, Ford Foundation Fellow, NAMA, December 4, 1969, NAMA curatorial files.

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