This early work from Kandinsky's body of graphic work encapsules the artist's main principles, on the small scale he often favored at the time, and in a medium that conveyed them best. Abstraction of form, perspective and depth, and expression of mood through color come to full maturity in Grne Frauen; these ideas receive further development in the landmark folios Klnge and Kleine Welten of subsequent decades (see lots 351 and 352).

The mysterious subject of this linocut is unknown, but is made slightly clearer with the understanding that Kandinsky, throughout the works of this period, included medieval subjects and images that came to him in dreams. The human forms advance and recede in the repeated patterns and abstractions and are balanced by the calming horizontal format and harmonious palette. Kandinsky, speaking of his early works and their often ethereal nature, said that "the contents, the inner meaning must be felt."