Wassily Kandinsky (1866-1944)

Etwas Violett

Details

Wassily Kandinsky (1866-1944)
Etwas Violett
signed with initial and dated 'K/28' (lower left); titled, dated and numbered 'No 315/1928 Etwas Violett' (on the reverse of the mount)
watercolor, pen and India ink on paper laid down by the artist on board
19.1/8 x 13 in. (48.5 x 34.3 cm.)
Painted in 1928

Provenance

Christian Zervos, Paris (acquired in 1929)
Pierre Alexandre Regnault, Laren (acquired from the above in 1929)
Anon. sale, Sotheby's, New York, 15 May 1985, lot 182 (acquired by the present owner)

Literature

ed. C. Zervos, Cahiers d'art, 3e anne, 1928, p. 452 (illustrated).
V.E. Barnett, Kandinsky Watercolours: Catalogue Raisonn, Ithaca, New York, 1994, vol. 2 (1922-1944), p. 236, no. 905 (illustrated).

Exhibited

Paris, Galerie Zak, Exposition d'aquarelles de Wassily Kandinsky, January 1929, no. 55.

Lot Essay

Christian Zervos, the first owner of this watercolor, is best known today as the editor of the catalogue of Picasso's works. He was also editor of the periodical Cahiers d'Art and published a monograph on Kandinsky by Will Grohmann in 1930. He bought Etwas Violett at the above-mentioned Kandinsky watercolor exhibition at Galerie Zak, Paris in 1929, and also received Mitte-violett (Barnett, no. 919) as a gift from the artist.