by Tom Gurney
Tom Gurney BSc (Hons) is an art history expert with over 20 years experience
Published on June 19, 2020 / Updated on October 14, 2023
Email: tomgurney1@gmail.com / Phone: +44 7429 011000
Autumn in Bavaria by Wassily Kandinsky: Introduction
In Autumn in Bavaria (Herbst in Bayern), a road curves past trees and buildings through bright yellow and green colour. Deep blue shadow cuts across its sunlit surface, while a darker canopy bears down from the right. Wassily Kandinsky made the small work around 1908, during the period when he and other artists were returning to the Bavarian town of Murnau to paint. Centre Pompidou owns the picture and catalogues it as oil on paper mounted to cardboard, 33 × 44.7 cm. Its brisk handling is easier to understand when the actual small support is kept in view. [1].
The museum gives the year in brackets—[1908]—rather than as a recorded dated signature. Its object tags connect the landscape with Bavaria, Murnau, trees, light and shadow, but the catalogue does not identify an exact street. This article therefore begins with what the image shows and uses other museum records to place it in the wider 1908 Murnau work. It does not borrow another painting's address, window or dimensions. [1]; [2].
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Watch on YouTubeAt a Glance
- Artist and catalogue date:Wassily Kandinsky, [1908]; the brackets follow Centre Pompidou's record.
- Owner's title:Herbst in Bayern (Automne en Bavière); English Autumn in Bavaria.
- Medium and dimensions:Oil on paper laid on cardboard, 33 × 44.7 cm.
- Collection:Centre Pompidou, Musée national d'art moderne, AM 81-65-32.
- Acquisition:Nina Kandinsky's 1981 bequest.
- Image:Existing page reproduction retained; the museum photograph has a separate documentation-service credit.
Where this work sits in Kandinsky’s career
The Blue Rider
1903Composition VII
1913Composition VIII
1923Several Circles
1926Sky Blue
1940Contents
- A road built with colour
- A small oil on a layered support
- Murnau in 1908
- What comparisons can establish
- The object's later history and image
- Frequently asked questions
- References
A road built with colour
The road begins wide in the foreground and narrows toward buildings in the distance. A band of bright yellow guides the eye inward, interrupted by dark blue shadow. Trees crowd both sides; on the left their foliage is yellow and green, on the right it becomes a deep red-green mass. The road is still recognisable, but broad colour areas do much of the work normally assigned to careful perspective lines. [1].
The light seems strong because its effects are divided sharply. Yellow and near-white passages stand beside dark blue-green marks. Some parts of the road look almost flat until the converging edges draw them into depth. This gives the picture a productive tension: a viewer can move toward the distant houses while also attending to separate patches of colour on the surface. The owner tags light, shadow, sun and season as subjects, but it does not state an exact time of day. [1].
At the far end, small roof and wall shapes are visible through the trees. Their details are compressed by the scale of the paper. It would be easy to supply a named road or building from another Kandinsky landscape, but this object's catalogue does not do so. The picture's real specificity lies in its colour and arrangement, not a street address. The site image is only 400 pixels wide, another reason to avoid overconfident identification of tiny architectural forms. [1].
A small oil on a layered support
Centre Pompidou's medium is oil on paper laid on cardboard. This is neither a canvas nor an ordinary watercolour just because paper is involved. Oil colour can be applied to paper, and the mounted cardboard gives the sheet a firmer support. The object measures 33 by 44.7 cm, modest beside Kandinsky's later large canvases. The record establishes the material structure; a small web reproduction alone cannot show every stroke, thickness or mounting edge. [1].
The scale helps explain the painting's directness. A road, trees and a few buildings are enough to fill it. Broad colour marks can register quickly across such a format without having to define every leaf. That is a visual inference from the documented size and the picture, not a claim that Kandinsky completed it in one sitting. The owner's record supplies no diary entry, session length or technical examination establishing such a procedure. [1].
The bracketed date should be handled with similar care. The museum presents [1908], a catalogue assignment, and cites the work in later catalogues. This supports placing it with Kandinsky's 1908 Bavarian pictures, but it is not the same as reading “1908” from a documented inscription on the front. A guide or directory can use 1908 while retaining the bracket caveat in the article and research packet. [1].
Murnau in 1908
The Lenbachhaus describes Kandinsky, Gabriele Münter, Alexej von Jawlensky and Marianne von Werefkin painting together in Murnau during 1908. Its record for Kandinsky's View from the Griesbräu Window discusses simplified basic forms, broad strokes and increasingly vivid contrasts. That is contextual evidence for the group and place, not an owner essay about Autumn in Bavaria. The Pompidou painting must keep its own medium, size and accession. [2].
The collaboration matters because the 1908 change was not Kandinsky working in complete isolation. The Lenbachhaus account names Münter, Jawlensky and Werefkin as part of the Murnau stay and describes a shift toward more expressive colour. That account supports a careful period context. It does not tell us who stood beside Kandinsky at the exact moment this road picture was made or how any one companion judged it. Those details are not in the owner record. [2].
The Munich and Murnau guide follows this wider setting. Within it, Autumn in Bavaria provides a compact example of recognisable landscape reorganised through bold colour. It is still a road with trees; it is not an abstract painting because the patches are strong. Kandinsky's later development does not require us to erase the visible place-based subject in 1908. [1]; [2].
What comparisons can establish
The Lenbachhaus View from the Griesbräu Window is a separate 1908 oil on cardboard, 49.8 × 70 cm, inventory GMS 34. It records a view from a named inn window. Autumn in Bavaria is oil on paper laid on cardboard, 33 × 44.7 cm, Centre Pompidou AM 81-65-32. Both works belong in a discussion of painting around Murnau, but the named Griesbräu viewpoint cannot be imported into the Pompidou picture. [2]; [1].
Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza owns another 1908 Kandinsky street view, Murnau: Houses in the Obermarkt. Its owner essay identifies a surviving viewpoint and discusses how colour begins to act more independently from the observed model. That gives a useful comparison of artistic concerns. It would be wrong, however, to claim the Pompidou road is the Obermarkt on the basis of the Thyssen record. Similar handling and a common year do not settle object identity or topography. [3]; [1].
The comparison also shows why “colour independent of nature” should be phrased carefully. The yellow foliage and blue shadow here still answer observable effects of autumn light. Their intensity and placement, though, are decisions in a painting rather than a calibrated copy of a photograph. The street remains readable while colour carries an unusual share of its structure and energy. Other 1908 works may push this balance in different directions. [3]; [1].
The object's later history and image
Nina Kandinsky's 1981 bequest brought the picture to Centre Pompidou's Musée national d'art moderne, where it has inventory AM 81-65-32. The detailed record notes a long-term deposit to Strasbourg beginning in 1998, while the live page also shows a dated loan in Rome in 2026–27. These entries are not a reason to assert that it hangs in any one room indefinitely. They show why collection ownership, deposit and current exhibition need to be kept distinct. [1].
The existing site splash is retained. Centre Pompidou marks the artwork public domain but credits its digital photograph to the museum's photographic documentation service with GrandPalaisRmn distribution. That credit is not a clear licence for a new copy of the photograph in this article or the planned artist guide. The article can cite the owner record for object facts and keep the inherited page image; the guide entry can be text-led unless another clearly licensed reproduction appears. [1].
The modest support, bracketed date and uncluttered owner record are not obstacles to discussing the work. They set limits that make the close reading more honest. We can describe a lit road, dark shadow, trees and compressed buildings; connect the picture to the documented 1908 Murnau period; and distinguish it from other named street views. The image's strength is its vivid negotiation between a real landscape subject and an increasingly forceful painted surface. [1]; [2].
Kandinsky artworks directory
Frequently Asked Questions
Centre Pompidou catalogues it as [1908], using brackets for the date. That is the museum's assigned year, not a cited dated inscription. [1].
It is oil on paper laid on cardboard, 33 × 44.7 cm. It is not oil on canvas or a watercolour. [1].
It belongs to Centre Pompidou's Musée national d'art moderne, AM 81-65-32, through Nina Kandinsky's 1981 bequest. Deposit and loan locations can change; use the owner's live record when planning a visit. [1].
The owner tags the scene with Murnau and landscape subjects but does not identify an exact street. A named viewpoint documented for another 1908 painting should not be assigned to this one. [1]; [3].
No. That Lenbachhaus oil on cardboard is 49.8 × 70 cm, GMS 34. Autumn in Bavaria is a smaller Pompidou oil on paper mounted to cardboard, AM 81-65-32. [2]; [1].
The museum calls the art public domain but separately credits the photograph and distributor. No clear new reuse licence is supplied for that photograph, so the guide entry can remain text-only. [1].
Discussion
What do you notice first in Autumn in Bavaria? Share a close observation or a question about the evidence for this work.
Comments are for comparing what we see and what the cited sources establish.
Reader Insights
Where does the road feel deepest, and where does it read as colour on a flat surface?
How do blue shadow and yellow light divide the small work?
Which detail would you need before assigning this picture to a named Murnau street?
Join the Conversation
Add your observation below and tell us which part of the artwork led you to it.
References
- Centre Pompidou, Herbst in Bayern (Automne en Bavière). Owner title, bracketed date, material, dimensions, accession, bequest and photo credit. View source.
- Lenbachhaus, Murnau – View from the Griesbräu Window. Separate 1908 object and context for the Murnau painters. View source.
- Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Murnau: Houses in the Obermarkt. Separate 1908 street view with a documented vantage. View source.
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