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Lot Essay
The present work was painted by Gabriele Mnter after her return from France, where she and Kandinsky had stayed between 1906 and 1907. Mnter had had a very active time in France. She exhibited at the Salon des Indpendants in March 1907 and in April the periodical Les Tendences Nouvelles reproduced several of her woodcuts. In the autumn of the same year she exhibited at the Salon d'Automne.
This particular period during which the present work was produced, marks a moment of transition in Mnter's work from the French-Impressionist style to Murnau, where she went in 1908 for the first time. While in Paris and Svres together with Kandinsky, Mnter did numerous studies and oils of streets, a subject which she would remain interested in. Her palette had considerably lightened, a feature which is still apparent in this painting which she did in Bonn. The title 'View from the flat in Bonn' suggests it was painted while she was staying with her sister and her brother-in-law who were living in Bonn. Blick aus der Bonner Wohnung visually underlines Mnter's own words: "You have probably understood that I had always been mainly a plein air painter..." (E.Roditi, 'Interview with Gabriele Mnter', Arts Magazine 34, 1960, pp.36-40). Indeed, the present picture shows her exploration of light and shadow, of perspective and depth. The perspective is built up with a repoussoir in the foreground - the flowers on the balcony - and leads the gaze of the spectator into the picture and down this street. This exploration of space, culminating at this time in Mnter's oeuvre, is a way of dealing with a motif which would radically change soon afterwards (see lot 61).
Mnter's companion later in her life, Johannes Eichner, described her artistic output during her time in France as follows: 'Whrend ihres Pariser Aufenthalts nimmt Mnter deutlich Einflsse des franzsischen Impressionismus in ihre bisher etwas schwerfllige Spachtelmalerei auf. Der Farbauftrag bekommt eine differenzierte Struktur, die Palette bleibt jedoch gedmpft. Wie sie in Svres aus dem Fenster ihrer Wohnung malte, was da zufllig zu sehen war, reglose Huser und Schuppen, Garten und kahle Bume, wohinter kaum ein Streifen der Ebene freiblieb, in der Paris unverkennbar lag, so war das tatschlich un coin de la nature, wie ihn Zola zum Gegenstand des Impressionismus erklrt hatte' (J. Eichner, quoted in Gabriele Mnter 1877-1962, Retrospektive, Munich 1992, p. 257).
The present work still very much incorporates the notion of depicting 'un coin de la nature' and there is a particularly French mood which Mnter would soon afterwards abandon for the style she developed in Murnau.
This particular period during which the present work was produced, marks a moment of transition in Mnter's work from the French-Impressionist style to Murnau, where she went in 1908 for the first time. While in Paris and Svres together with Kandinsky, Mnter did numerous studies and oils of streets, a subject which she would remain interested in. Her palette had considerably lightened, a feature which is still apparent in this painting which she did in Bonn. The title 'View from the flat in Bonn' suggests it was painted while she was staying with her sister and her brother-in-law who were living in Bonn. Blick aus der Bonner Wohnung visually underlines Mnter's own words: "You have probably understood that I had always been mainly a plein air painter..." (E.Roditi, 'Interview with Gabriele Mnter', Arts Magazine 34, 1960, pp.36-40). Indeed, the present picture shows her exploration of light and shadow, of perspective and depth. The perspective is built up with a repoussoir in the foreground - the flowers on the balcony - and leads the gaze of the spectator into the picture and down this street. This exploration of space, culminating at this time in Mnter's oeuvre, is a way of dealing with a motif which would radically change soon afterwards (see lot 61).
Mnter's companion later in her life, Johannes Eichner, described her artistic output during her time in France as follows: 'Whrend ihres Pariser Aufenthalts nimmt Mnter deutlich Einflsse des franzsischen Impressionismus in ihre bisher etwas schwerfllige Spachtelmalerei auf. Der Farbauftrag bekommt eine differenzierte Struktur, die Palette bleibt jedoch gedmpft. Wie sie in Svres aus dem Fenster ihrer Wohnung malte, was da zufllig zu sehen war, reglose Huser und Schuppen, Garten und kahle Bume, wohinter kaum ein Streifen der Ebene freiblieb, in der Paris unverkennbar lag, so war das tatschlich un coin de la nature, wie ihn Zola zum Gegenstand des Impressionismus erklrt hatte' (J. Eichner, quoted in Gabriele Mnter 1877-1962, Retrospektive, Munich 1992, p. 257).
The present work still very much incorporates the notion of depicting 'un coin de la nature' and there is a particularly French mood which Mnter would soon afterwards abandon for the style she developed in Murnau.