Lot 686 D

Nina Kandinsky gave the present watercolour to the major art critic Will Grohmann in July 1950. The work passed from his hands to the possession of the present owner. In 1922, the Kandinskys moved to Weimar, where he had accepted an appointment as professor at the Bauhaus. Kandinsky and Grohmann first met in 1921, although Grohmann already knew Kandinsky's work from various exhibitions in Dresden, including those at the Galerie Ernst Arnold. Grohmann and his wife lived in Dresden. His close contact with the Bauhaus also led to an active and very friendly dialogue as well as an intense cooperation. Whenever possible, Grohmann did what he could to help Kandinsky, who was 21 years older than him; he wrote about him, in "Cicerone", for example, included him in exhibitions and negotiated with various museums regarding their purchasing policies. In 1930, Grohmann prepared a volume on Kandinsky at the Parisian publishing house Cahiers d'Art. The friendship between the Grohmanns and Nina Kandinsky continued after the Kandinskys moved to Paris and also following Vassily Kandinsky's death in 1944. In 1958, Grohmann wrote the first extensive monograph about the artist. His collection seems to have included a total of 24 works by Kandinsky (cf. Konstanze Rudert, ed., Im Netzwerk der Moderne. Will Grohmann, Munich 2012, pp. 182-91).