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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
Improvisation 12 (The Rider) by Wassily Kandinsky: Introduction
A rider moves across the centre of a large, turbulent field of colour. The horse and figure can be identified quickly, yet long bands of red, yellow, blue and black make the action feel larger than a single animal and person. The Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen catalogues the painting as Wassily Kandinsky's Improvisation 12 (Der Reiter), made in 1910 in oil on canvas, 97 × 106.5 cm. It belongs to the state's modern art collection associated with the Pinakothek der Moderne in Munich, inventory 11249. “The Rider” translates the German subtitle; the numbered Improvisation title distinguishes the work from Kandinsky's other rider pictures. [1].
This canvas has a particularly close connection to Franz Marc. Kandinsky sent it to him in 1911, and Marc later gave Kandinsky his own painting The Dream in exchange. Marc's family kept Improvisation 12 after his death; Maria Marc sold it to the Bavarian State Painting Collections in 1951. Those details, recorded by the owning collection and explored in research published by the Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, make the painting more than an example of a style. It was a gift between two artists as they began to work toward the Blue Rider almanac. [1]; [2].
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Watch on YouTubeAt a Glance
- Artist and title:Wassily Kandinsky, Improvisation 12 (Der Reiter); the subtitle means The Rider.
- Date:1910, according to the owning collection.
- Medium and dimensions:Oil on canvas, 97 × 106.5 cm.
- Collection:Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen, modern art collection at the Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich, inventory 11249. The current object page marks it not on display; check for changes before visiting.
- Motifs:A horse and rider, with three small figures at left identified in the Thyssen research essay; a broad rush of colour crosses the upper field.
- Early ownership:Kandinsky sent the work to Franz Marc in 1911. It passed to Maria Marc after Franz's death and was bought from her by the Bavarian State Painting Collections in 1951.
- Image:Existing site splash retained. The owner provides a separate 3000 × 2813 image under CC BY-SA 4.0, saved unchanged as an optional guide candidate with attribution and licence recorded.
Where this work sits in Kandinsky’s career
The Blue Rider
1903Composition VII
1913Composition VIII
1923Several Circles
1926Sky Blue
1940Contents
- The rider inside a storm of colour
- A gift to Franz Marc
- From the Marc family to Munich's collection
- Frequently asked questions
- References
The rider inside a storm of colour
The mounted figure dominates the painting, but its edges do not settle into a carefully modelled portrait. The rider's dark head and pale arm stand against overlapping reds and blues. The horse pushes across the lower half, its body broken into strong colour zones rather than described by smooth anatomy. Around them, strokes sweep diagonally from one edge to another. The subject can be named, yet looking only for the horse would miss the forces that make it seem to surge forward. [1].
The upper zone is especially active. Red arcs across a lighter blue and white field; flashes of yellow meet deep blue and black. This is not a reliably mapped sky above a set of hills. In the Thyssen research essay, Marta Ruiz del Árbol describes a burst of colour moving from the upper right and spreading across the top of the canvas. She argues that the recognisable figures stand within this larger colour event rather than a conventional landscape setting. That account fits the way the bands can look like movement before they resemble any named natural feature. [2].
Ruiz del Árbol also identifies three small figures at the left. They can be easy to overlook when the rider and wide red band first seize the eye. Their presence complicates a simple claim that this is only a lone horseman travelling through empty space. At the same time, the essay does not name them as particular people or attach a documented narrative to them. The article can mark their position and leave the relationship to the central rider as an open question for close looking. [2].
The animal is recognisable enough to justify the subtitle, but colour often overrules the usual contours. A blue curve on the right can read as part of the horse and as an independent visual weight. Warm orange and red passages near the centre answer the long warmer stroke overhead. Dark marks gather around the lower edge, preventing the horse from appearing to float without resistance. These observations describe the visible arrangement; they do not require the reader to assign a symbolic value to each hue. [1].
Kandinsky's earlier The Blue Rider of 1903 also includes a rider, but its small figure moves through a more legible landscape. The 1910 canvas brings the horseman closer and loosens the setting into racing colour. They share a motif without being the same work or necessarily carrying an identical story. Improvisation 12 also predates the official Blue Rider group's formation in 1911; its later association with the almanac grows from the artists' relationship and from the rider motif, not from a claim that the 1910 painting was made to illustrate a named group publication. [1]; [2].
A gift to Franz Marc
The painting was already complete when Kandinsky and Franz Marc became close collaborators. Ruiz del Árbol cites a 31 July 1911 postcard in which Marc told Kandinsky that the canvas had arrived, had been hung and had made a strong impression. The source is specific about the correspondence, so the gift should not be blurred into an exchange that happened all at once in 1910. The artists met in early 1911; Kandinsky sent Marc this existing painting in the summer as discussion of their planned almanac gathered pace. [2].
Marc's reply came through painting too. The Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza says he gave Kandinsky The Dream, painted in 1912, shortly after its completion or early in 1913, in return for Improvisation 12. The owner of Improvisation 12 gives a more compact provenance: Franz Marc acquired it in exchange for his own Der Traum by 1912 at the latest. The two records differ in how they compress the timing. Together they support the reciprocal gift while suggesting that the process stretched across correspondence and works made in different years. [3]; [1].
The exchange does not prove that every colour or shape in one painting answers a particular colour or shape in the other. Marc's The Dream surrounds a sleeping figure with animals in an invented space; Kandinsky's rider presses through a more turbulent pictorial field. Their difference is part of what makes the pairing useful. Each artist gave the other a major statement of his own developing approach. The Thyssen essay uses the exchange to explore their friendship and artistic aims, not to reduce the two canvases to matching illustrations of one doctrine. [3]; [2].
Ruiz del Árbol asks how much the gifted rider affected the eventual name Der Blaue Reiter. Kandinsky later recalled that he loved riders and Marc loved horses, and that both loved blue. The essay treats the summer 1911 moment around the painting as a plausible part of the naming story, but it does not establish a single cause. The title of a publication can have several currents behind it. The safe historical point is that Marc had Kandinsky's rider painting while the project and its name were taking shape. [2]; [4].
From the Marc family to Munich's collection
The Bavarian State Painting Collections traces the work from Franz Marc, in Sindelsdorf, to Maria Marc after his death in 1916, then to its own purchase from her in 1951. The inventory number 11249 secures this object's identification within the collection. Maria Marc's role should be stated plainly: she inherited the work and remained its recorded owner until the sale. A summary that leaps from Franz Marc directly to the museum would omit thirty-five years of the painting's documented history. [1].
The collection assigns the canvas to its modern art holdings associated with the Pinakothek der Moderne. As of the cited record's latest update in February 2026, the object page marked it not on display. The inherited article invited readers to go to Munich to see it in person without checking its current placement. The collection remains its stable home, but whether it can be seen on a particular day is a separate question. Readers should consult the live owner record before a visit. [1].
A small image can show the general rush of colour, but the original oil measures nearly a metre in each direction. At that scale, the contrast between a broad red stroke and a small figure at left would be physically different from its appearance on a phone. The site retains its existing image while the owner offers a CC BY-SA 4.0 download that is clearly labelled. An unchanged, larger copy has been saved as an optional image for the planned guide, with source, credit, licence and attribution requirements logged. The guide can use it with a visible credit; the web page does not need an immediate image replacement to tell the story accurately. [1]; [5].
Improvisation 12 (The Rider) is historically specific and visually unsettled at once. The owner documents its title, date, size and passage through the Marc family; a scholarly museum essay reveals the gift that made it part of the artists' collaboration. Inside the canvas, the rider remains clear enough to anchor the eye while colour and line refuse to build a conventional landscape around him. That is the work's lasting interest: a recognisable figure carried by a pictorial force that exceeds description. [1]; [2].
Kandinsky artworks directory
Frequently Asked Questions
The Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen dates it to 1910. Kandinsky sent the completed painting to Franz Marc in 1911. [1]; [2].
It is oil on canvas, 97 × 106.5 cm, according to the owning collection. [1].
Der Reiter is German for The Rider. A mounted figure is central to the painting, with three smaller figures at left described in the Thyssen research essay. [1]; [2].
Kandinsky sent it to Marc in 1911. Marc later gave Kandinsky his own The Dream in return. The two works were made in different years, and the exchange unfolded over time. [2]; [3].
It belongs to the Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen in Munich, inventory 11249. The current owner record marks it not on display; check that live record for changes before travelling. [1].
Discussion
What do you notice first in Improvisation 12 (The Rider)? 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
Which bands of colour make the rider feel in motion?
Where do the three smaller figures emerge at the left?
What does the documented exchange with Marc establish, and what remains an interpretation?
Join the Conversation
Add your observation below and tell us which part of the artwork led you to it.
References
- Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen, Improvisation 12 (Der Reiter), inventory 11249: object, provenance and CC BY-SA image licence. View source.
- Marta Ruiz del Árbol, “The Rider and the Dream,” Open Windows 8, Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza. View source.
- Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Franz Marc, The Dream, inventory 660. View source.
- Museum of Modern Art, Der Blaue Reiter almanac collection record. View source.
- Creative Commons, Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International licence. View source.
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