Picture of the day

Untitled. 1941. Gouache. 48.1 x 31.2 cm. The Solomon R. Guggebheim Museum, New York, NY, USA.

Wassily Kandinsky was born in Moscow into a merchant family. In 1871 the family moved to Odessa, where his parents soon divorced. The boy was looked after by his aunt. In Odessa Kandinsky studied in a classical gymnasium and had private lessons in music, drawing and painting. In 1886 he returned to Moscow to begin studying law and economics at the Moscow University. While a student, in 1889, he got commissioned by the "Society for Natural Science, Ethnography and Anthropology" to go on a research expedition to Vologda. The strong folk art of northern Russia made a lasting impression on him, and the results of his trip made an impression on the Society, which chose him their member.

In 1892 Kandinsky got his Law degree. He became a lecturer at the Moscow University, and married his cousin Anna (Anya) Chimiakina. He pursued his academic career but at the same time paid more and more attention to art. Thus in 1895 he took the post of art director of a publishing house in Moscow. The year of 1896 was a turning point in Kandinsky's life – he refused an offer from the University of Tartu to head one of their departments in order to devote himself to the study of painting. Together with his wife, who was very reluctant to leave Moscow and the settled life, he went to Munich and began his art studies at Azbè's art school. The school of Anton Azbè was very popular among Russians, but brought only disappointment to Kandinsky, he found drawing "smelly, apathetic, expressionless, characterless" models thoroughly disgusting. Nevertheless he dutifully took the classes for two years, simultaneously visiting a course of anatomy and working en pleine-air every day. At Azbè's Kandinsky met two compatriot painters, Alexis von Jawlensky and Marianne von Werefkin, who became close friends of his.

One can read about him here.