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 19 by Wassily Kandinsky: Introduction
Two groups of outlined figures stand within a deep blue field. At the left, warm red, yellow and white gather around a compressed procession; at the right, taller black contours rise through blue and violet. A dark-rimmed, elongated form hangs between them from above. The Lenbachhaus identifies this as Wassily Kandinsky's Improvisation 19, a 1911 oil on canvas, 120 × 141.5 cm, inventory GMS 79. Its catalogue calls attention to the figures' unusual transparency: colour flows through their bodies rather than stopping at the black lines that define them. [1].
The museum's essay proposes a spiritual reading of this scene, connecting the coloured passages with ideas of auras and a perception beyond ordinary sight. That is an interpretation grounded in Kandinsky's documented interest in mystical and philosophical writing, not a label Kandinsky wrote next to each painted figure. The painting can first be examined as a carefully balanced relation of two groups, a descending form, open colour and heavy outlines. Those visible elements give the historical interpretation something concrete to answer to. [1].
Annotated details in Improvisation 19
Select a numbered point to examine three close views of the work.
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Details from IMPROVISATION 19
Three close views of the work.
Figures at left
Outline shapes accumulate beside the bright yellow and orange passage.
Sweeping arc
A broad dark curve crosses the upper part of the painting.
Vertical lines
Long dark strokes descend through the cooler right side.
Reproduction from the linked collection record, CC0 1.0. View image source and terms.
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Watch on YouTubeAt a Glance
- Artist and title:Wassily Kandinsky, Improvisation 19.
- Date:1911, according to the owning collection.
- Medium and dimensions:Oil on canvas, 120 × 141.5 cm.
- Collection:Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus und Kunstbau München, inventory GMS 79; gift through the Gabriele Münter Foundation in 1957.
- Visible arrangement:Two groups of outline figures, warm colours at left, a broad blue field at right and an elongated black-bordered form between them.
- Interpretation:The museum's catalogue essay reads the coloured fields as auras and the central form as an extraordinary apparition. These are attributed scholarly readings.
- Different painting:Improvisation 19 a, also from 1911, is a separate, smaller Lenbachhaus oil, 97 × 106 cm, inventory GMS 84.
- Image:Existing site splash retained. Lenbachhaus explicitly labels its 2000 × 1702 download CC0 1.0; an unchanged copy is saved as an optional guide candidate.
Where this work sits in Kandinsky’s career
The Blue Rider
1903Composition VII
1913Composition VIII
1923Several Circles
1926Sky Blue
1940Contents
- Annotated details
- The left and right groups
- The museum's spiritual reading
- Improvisation 19 is not Improvisation 19 a
- Collection, scale and image
- Frequently asked questions
- References
The left and right groups
The left side is compact. Thin black curves and angles mark several figures packed near the front edge, but their shapes are not filled with single solid colours. Red, yellow, white and a little green move through and around them. Farther left, pale upright forms can suggest another set of figures behind the group. The old page guessed that these white outlines might be a building or small town. The Lenbachhaus instead describes them as further ghostly followers. That identification better fits its reading of the left-hand procession, though the forms remain visually elusive. [1].
Across the canvas, the right-hand group takes up a different kind of space. The outlines are taller, darker and more open. Blue passes through them, so the figures seem to belong to the broad blue area and yet to stand apart from it. The museum sees them in profile, apparently moving toward an aim beyond the right edge. This is an impression of direction in the image, not evidence of a named destination. Kandinsky gives them enough shared contour to be seen as a group while withholding the facial detail that might turn them into portrait subjects. [1].
Between those groups, a rounded, lengthened form enters from the top. It is bordered by a dark black contour and contains changing pale colour. In a purely formal reading, it acts like a bridge or interruption: the eye follows its heavy edge from the warm upper field toward the blue centre. It also keeps the two groups from being isolated panels. The Lenbachhaus essay interprets it as a manifestation of something beyond ordinary sensory experience. That proposal should be named as the curators' interpretation, while the dark outline and position are available for any viewer to verify. [1].
The painting's large blue area is not a flat rectangle. Blue shifts from lighter passages to deep, saturated zones; violet and red meet it above. The black figures at right would be much less commanding if set against the warm tangle at left, and the left group would feel less compressed without the blue space beside it. The painting therefore turns an encounter among figures into an encounter among kinds of colour and line. Its abstraction is not the disappearance of people; it is a change in how bodies, background and pictorial force relate. [1].
The museum's spiritual reading
The Lenbachhaus text, drawn from Helmut Friedel and Annegret Hoberg's 2007 Blue Rider publication, places Improvisation 19 in the context of Kandinsky's interest in Rudolf Steiner's lectures, theosophical literature and Munich circles concerned with philosophical and mystical questions. It suggests that the transparent figures and surrounding colours evoke auras, with colours expressing states of thought and feeling. The essay also reads the suspended form as an apparition and the deep blue as a higher spiritual sphere. This is a serious, object-specific scholarly account, rather than a universal dictionary that can be applied to every blue patch in Kandinsky. [1].
A later Lenbachhaus publication notes that Improvisation 19 has often been read in relation to theosophy and purported thought or emotion auras, while acknowledging the wider scholarly debate around such influences. The distinction matters. The records support saying that the artist encountered relevant ideas and that museum scholars have interpreted this painting through them. They do not require the article to tell readers that a given figure is certainly an initiate, that a particular colour has only one religious meaning, or that the scene records an actual ritual. The painting's title itself names no such event. [3]; [1].
The catalogue's interpretation becomes more useful when tested against the visual organisation. Figures really are transparent. Blue really does fill much of the right side, and the dark-bordered form really does hang above the division between groups. Whether those features evoke auras, a visionary encounter or a looser experience of people moving through colour depends on how much weight one gives Kandinsky's historical reading and one's own looking. An article can keep the curator's theory available without closing every other careful observation. [1].
The inherited page already noticed two groups of figures, which is a good starting point. It then added broad statements about Kandinsky mastering colour and about German art in general, without grounding them in this object. The owner record gives more precise questions: why are the outlines hollow, how do the left and right colour fields differ, and what does the form entering from above do to the relation between the groups? These questions make the canvas more intelligible than an assertion that it merely looks random. [1].
Improvisation 19 is not Improvisation 19 a
The suffix a is consequential here. Lenbachhaus catalogues Improvisation 19 a as another 1911 oil on canvas, 97 × 106 cm, inventory GMS 84. Its image has a different field of colour and a different set of forms, and its museum essay discusses possible hill or mountain echoes in relation to a very different composition. It is not an alternate title for the 120 × 141.5 cm painting on this page. Even though both works belong to the same collection and year, their dimensions, inventory numbers and owner records keep them separate. [1]; [2].
The comparison is instructive because the two works do not share a simple iconographic template. In 19, the eye meets two groups of elongated outline figures and a broad blue interval. In 19 a, the owner discusses turbulent, less easily identified forms and possible landscape reminiscences. To borrow the latter's mountains or events for the former would produce a false account of each. Numbering alone is a poor substitute for looking at the exact object and its catalogue identifier. [1]; [2].
Kandinsky's title Improvisation is also not proof that he made this painting in a single unplanned burst. The category relates to inner experience, and the work's contours may feel spontaneous, but neither the Lenbachhaus record nor its cited text documents the sequence of every brushstroke. What can be said is that the canvas of 1911 moves away from conventional solid figures and from a single realistic setting. The groups of people remain visible while the coloured field takes on an independent expressive role. [1].
Collection, scale and image
The Lenbachhaus lists the painting as part of the Gabriele Münter Foundation gift of 1957, one of the decisive sources for its Kandinsky holdings. The object measures 120 × 141.5 cm, wider than it is high, and the figures at right are large enough to carry substantial black lines across the original canvas. A small site reproduction communicates the arrangement but reduces the weight of those strokes and the variation inside the blue field. The owning record currently says the painting is not on display. A reader planning a visit should consult the live collection record rather than assume that collection ownership means a work is hanging in a gallery. [1].
The existing site image has been retained for the page. Unlike many other museum reproductions encountered in this project, the Lenbachhaus object page explicitly marks its downloadable image CC0 1.0. An unchanged 2000 × 1702 file has therefore been saved as an optional image for the planned artist guide, with the exact source and museum credit recorded. The image belongs to GMS 79; the nearby 19 a download would show GMS 84 and must not be substituted. The guide can use the clearly released image if its layout benefits from it, while the current page remains valid with its existing splash. [1]; [4].
Improvisation 19 can be approached as a gathering of people, an experiment in transparent contour or an image made in dialogue with spiritual ideas. The first two readings can be tested directly against the canvas; the third is a documented museum interpretation that opens historical context without fixing every detail. Keeping all three levels distinct allows the work to remain both specific and visually alive. [1].
Kandinsky artworks directory
Frequently Asked Questions
Lenbachhaus catalogues it as a 1911 painting. [1].
It is oil on canvas, 120 × 141.5 cm, according to the owning museum. [1].
The museum describes two groups of outlined, transparent figures, one gathered at left and another moving through the large blue field at right. Their identities and the precise event are not named. [1].
The Lenbachhaus's collection essay interprets the colour around and through the figures as auras, in the context of Kandinsky's interest in spiritual and mystical thought. It remains a scholarly reading rather than an inscription on the canvas. [1].
No. Improvisation 19 is GMS 79, 120 × 141.5 cm. Improvisation 19 a is a separate 1911 oil, GMS 84, 97 × 106 cm. [1]; [2].
It belongs to the Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus und Kunstbau München, inventory GMS 79, through the Gabriele Münter Foundation gift of 1957. The owner's current record marks it not on display; check that record for changes. [1].
Discussion
What do you notice first in Improvisation 19? 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 do the left and right outline groups differ most?
How does the dark-bordered form from above change their relationship?
Which parts of the museum’s aura reading can you test against visible features?
Join the Conversation
Add your observation below and tell us which part of the artwork led you to it.
References
- Lenbachhaus, Improvisation 19, GMS 79, with the Friedel–Hoberg collection essay and CC0 image notice. View source.
- Lenbachhaus, separate Improvisation 19 a, GMS 84. View source.
- Lenbachhaus, Group Dynamics: The Blue Rider, English publication discussing theosophical readings of Improvisation 19. View source.
- Creative Commons, CC0 1.0 Universal public domain dedication. View source.
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