As a Russian citizen, Kandinsky was forced to leave Germany in August, 1914, immediately after the outbreak of the First World War. He and Gabriële Münter departed for Switzerland, where they stayed until late November. Kandinsky returned alone to Russia in December. Apart from trips to Stockholm and Finland, he remained in his native country for the next seven years. He met Münter for the last time during Christmas, 1915. The following year he became acquainted with Nina von Adreevskaia, whom he married in 1917.

During this period Kandinsky experienced war, revolution and personal crises. In 1915 he made no oil paintings. He was far from inactive, however, and continued to paint watercolors which carry forth the vibrant color and spontaneous brushwork of the pre-war period. The present work is predominantly lyrical in tone. The familiar towers set on a rocky precipice are visible; horses and figures populate the scene below. The cataclysmic, visionary aspect in much of Kandinsky's pre-war work takes on new meaning during these years. His work continued to evolve, and during the Russian period he moved from expressionist, non-representational painting to the highly geometrical style which characterizes his painting when he returned to Germany in 1922 to take up a position in the Weimar Bauhaus.

Vivian Endicott Barnett will include this watercolor in the forthcoming third volume of her Kandinsky catalogue raisonné of the gouaches and watercolors.