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
Winter Landscape by Wassily Kandinsky: Introduction
Wassily Kandinsky's Winter Landscape draws the eye down a pinkish path between thin dark trees. Snow glows yellow and violet at the left, while a broad blue-green field extends across the right. Houses with steep roofs close the view in the middle distance. A band of yellow light presses beneath the dark blue sky. The scene remains recognisable as a winter village, but colour and line are so forceful that looking at the painting means noticing how it is made as well as what it depicts. The State Hermitage Museum identifies the work as Зимний пейзаж, made in Germany in 1909, oil on cardboard, 70 × 97 cm. [1].
The English title is descriptive rather than an exact address. The Hermitage record names Germany as the place of creation but does not locate a particular road, village or building. It gives the painting inventory number ГЭ-9050 and records its arrival in the Hermitage in 1948. These object details provide a sound starting point for reading the image while leaving the precise site open. [1].
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Watch on YouTubeAt a Glance
- Artist and title:Wassily Kandinsky, Winter Landscape (Зимний пейзаж in the State Hermitage Museum record).
- Date and place:1909, made in Germany, according to the owner museum.
- Medium and size:Oil on cardboard, 70 × 97 cm.
- Collection identity:State Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg, inventory ГЭ-9050.
- Recorded collection history:Entered the former State Museum of New Western Art in 1929; transferred to the Hermitage in 1948.
- Visible scene:Snowy path, thin trees, dark-roofed buildings and bright sky, set out in blue, yellow, pink, violet and black.
- Location limit:The owner's record does not identify a specific village or road; similar contemporary Murnau scenes should not be treated as the same object.
Where this work sits in Kandinsky’s career
The Blue Rider
1903Composition VII
1913Composition VIII
1923Several Circles
1926Sky Blue
1940Contents
- A path made of colour
- What the Hermitage record establishes
- Kandinsky's landscapes around 1909
- Recognisable scene, unstable space
- Frequently asked questions
- References
A path made of colour
The path begins near the lower centre and bends toward the group of houses. Its pale pink and cream strokes are edged by dark blue, so it appears to cut through the colder colour around it. Yet the route is not drawn with a single outline. Short brush marks change direction, leaving the sense of a track formed by many separate touches. What might be a simple recession into depth becomes an active surface of warm and cool colour. [1].
At the left, the snow is far from pure white. Yellow, peach, lavender and pale blue strokes crowd together. The darker bank above it supplies a firm top edge, and a small red accent glows among the heavy trees. At the right, a larger blue-green snowfield is more open. These two sides do different work: one is dense and warm, the other broad and cool. The path mediates between them. This is a close-looking description, not a claim that Kandinsky assigned fixed meanings to yellow or blue in this individual painting. [1].
The black or very dark blue trunks create a rhythm across the foreground. One near the left edge is especially tall and strong; thinner trunks nearer the centre seem to mark the path's onward movement. They do not form a perfectly regular row, which helps the scene feel observed rather than diagrammed. At the same time, their dark verticals hold the quick, broken colour marks in place. The eye passes between tree and track, then toward the roofs. [1].
The buildings are simplified but not erased. Yellow walls stand out against blue roofs, while a dark house at the far right leans across much of the sky's lower edge. Around and behind them, the horizon is compressed into broad bands of yellow, green and deep blue. The result can feel less like a neutral record of weather than a chosen arrangement of light. We can say that the painting sets warm light against cold shadows; we cannot establish the exact hour or meteorological conditions from the image alone. [1].
What the Hermitage record establishes
The Hermitage catalogues the material as cardboard and oil. That distinction matters because the painting is not a vast canvas designed from the start as a monumental statement. Its 70 × 97 cm format is still substantial for a landscape study, allowing large fields of colour as well as the smaller broken strokes in the snow. A derivative image listing circulates a different measurement, but the owner's current catalogue supplies the dimensions used here. [1].
The museum also records a short institutional history. The work reached the State Museum of New Western Art in 1929 and came to the Hermitage in 1948 after that museum's collections were redistributed. The Hermitage's public record gives those dates but does not identify every earlier owner or transaction. It would be unsafe to fill the gap with a narrative drawn from an image caption elsewhere. The collection number ГЭ-9050 is the stable identifier for the painting now. [1].
At the time the collection page was checked, it listed the work in the General Staff Building, room 443. Display locations change, so visitors should consult the Hermitage record before planning around a specific gallery. The permanent fact supported by the source is the museum's ownership; the room number is a current display detail. [1].
Kandinsky's landscapes around 1909
In 1908–10, Kandinsky and the artists around him made many outdoor landscape pictures in southern Germany. The Lenbachhaus, discussing its separate Murnau – Footpath and Houses of 1909, explains that Kandinsky continued to work from nature during the Murnau period and that many of his best-known landscapes were made in those years. Its discussion highlights strong lines, blue-green contrasts and a lively painted surface. That context helps explain why Winter Landscape can be both a view of buildings and a testing ground for colour. It does not prove that the Hermitage picture shows the same footpath or even a named Murnau site. [2]; [1].
The contrast with that Lenbachhaus painting is useful. The Munich work centres on a path and houses too, but the museum assigns it its own dimensions, collection number and provenance. The Hermitage winter view is 70 × 97 cm, much larger than the Lenbachhaus picture's roughly 33 × 45 cm. The two works can show related concerns without becoming stages of one object or interchangeable illustrations. [2]; [1].
The Lenbachhaus further notes that Kandinsky's Murnau nature studies contributed to his move toward more freely composed paintings. In Winter Landscape, trees, road and roofs still provide a readable framework. Yet the painting gives colour its own momentum. The yellow strip near the horizon need not be merely a realistic patch of sunset; it also makes a luminous edge between the houses and dark sky. The violet and peach in the snow similarly do more than record local colour. They create relationships that can be enjoyed even before a viewer identifies the place. [2]; [1].
Recognisable scene, unstable space
The painting keeps enough depth to invite us along the path, but it resists an easy glide into the distance. The brush marks on the snow remain conspicuous; dark contours around roofs pull the architecture forward; high colour contrast can flatten a patch just when a building seems to recede. This interplay is part of its interest. A viewer can feel the winter route and also keep returning to the painted surface. [1].
Several shapes become more emphatic the longer one looks. The leftmost tree is almost a frame within the frame. The middle trunks divide the light path from the houses. The right-hand roof presses against the yellow band at an angle. No single feature tells a story, but together they make a carefully balanced sequence from near snow to distant sky. The picture's movement depends as much on those dark structural lines as on its startling colour. [1].
Winter Landscape belongs to an early moment when Kandinsky could still build an image around a visible place while allowing colour to take increasing freedom. The Hermitage's 1909 date, material, dimensions and collection number identify this particular painting. Its vivid path, snow and dark trees reward close attention without requiring an invented exact location or a prediction that abstraction was inevitable. [1]; [2].
Kandinsky artworks directory
Frequently Asked Questions
The State Hermitage Museum dates it to 1909 and gives Germany as the place of creation. [1].
It is oil on cardboard, measuring 70 × 97 cm in the Hermitage's record. [1].
It belongs to the State Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg, inventory ГЭ-9050. The museum's online entry lists a current display room in the General Staff Building. [1].
The cited Hermitage record identifies Germany but no precise road or village. Other Kandinsky landscapes of the period have documented Murnau locations; their titles should not be transferred to this work. [1]; [2].
The museum says it was transferred in 1948 from the State Museum of New Western Art, where it had entered in 1929. Its public entry does not supply a complete earlier provenance. [1].
It still shows a path, trees, houses and snow. Its unusual colour and strong outlines make those forms visually independent, but the identifiable scene remains central to the work. [1].
Discussion
What do you notice first in Winter Landscape? 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
How do warm colours in the snow change your sense of winter?
Where does the path lead your eye before the dark trunks interrupt it?
What evidence would be needed to name the exact road or village?
Join the Conversation
Add your observation below and tell us which part of the artwork led you to it.
References
- State Hermitage Museum, Зимний пейзаж, digital collection 32199. View source.
- Lenbachhaus, Kandinsky, Murnau – Fußweg und Häuser, object and curatorial text. View source.
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