An Avenue in Sèvres
  • Gabriele Münter
  • Berlin 1877 - 1962 Murnau
  • An Avenue in Sèvres, circa 1930
  • Watercolour over pencil, on drawing paper,
  • signed with pencil on the lower right: Münter
    monogramed lower left: (interlaced)
    inscribed by the artist on the verso:
    vom Spaziergang / bei Sèvres um 1930
  • 325 × 255 mm
Provenance:
Estate of the artist, Murnau
sale Hauswedell, Hamburg, November 1964, lot 242
private collection Hamburg

After her bitter separation from Wassily Kandinsky (1866-1944), Gabriele Münter only found the necessary strength to travel again to France in 1929, in the company of her new life partner, the art historian Johannes Eichner. Along with Paris, she also revisited Sèvres, where she had spent such a happy and productive period with Kandinsky in 1906-1907.

The second sojourn would have a similarly stimulating effect and gave Gabriele Münter back the artistic impetus she had hoped for, so that she could concentrate on painting with renewed motivation upon her homecoming in 1930. One year later she returned with Eichner from Munich to her house in Murnau for good.

The watercolour shown here compels us with its intense and freshly-coloured use of wash,whose unusual middle tones reflect the French surroundings, entirely in contrast to the clear colours of the pictures from her Bavarian homeland.

The authenticity of this work has been confirmed by the Gabriele Münter- and Johannes Eichner-Foundation in Munich.