Beach Baskets in Holland

The original oil on cardboard painting created by Wassily Kandinsky in 1904 is part of the Blue Rider collection owned by the Lenbachhaus art museum (Stadtishe Galerie) in Munich – Although the original was created seven years before Kandinsky and his contemporaries launched the "First exhibition of the editorial board of Der Blaue Reiter" which opened on December 18th 1911 for around a month before moving to several major cities throughout Europe during 1912.

Kandinsky abandoned teaching law and economics in Moscow to attend the Munich art school in 1896 as a mature student: Although he was not accepted immediately and so began to study unaided. It seems no coincidence that Kandinsky saw an Exhibition of Monet’s impressionist art works in Moscow that year – Undoubtedly inspired he described in particular Monet’s Haystacks which as an oil painting, took on a ‘fairy-tale power and splendor’ – And indeed, Beach Baskets in Holland has an Impressionistic as well as colorful ambience.

The vivid blue and yellow hues Kandinsky uses within Beach Baskets in Holland give this work a positive and joyful ambience. Indeed, already we witness the Expressionism that was natural and inherent to this ground-breaking artist. A cheerful and upbeat oil painting that would grace any environment.