This small house with its lovely gardens in the town of Murnau on the Staffel Lake provided a retreat for artists Wassily Kandinsky and Gabriele Muenter. It was here that Kandinsky painted his first abstract watercolor and established, with Muenter and several other artists, the influential Blue Rider movement.
Brief Background on Wassily Kandinsky
Kandinsky was born in Moscow in 1866 and grew up in Odessa. He studied law and economics and worked as a law professor until turning to painting at the age of 30.
He moved to Munich in 1896 and studied at several art academies. In 1902, he founded and began teaching at the Phalanx Painting School; there, he began a romantic relationship with one of his students, Gabriele Muenter.
The pair traveled extensively in Europe between 1904 and 1908 before setting into an apartment together in Munich in 1908. In 1909, Muenter purchased the house in Murnau, and the two spent summers there, painting intensively, until 1914, when they separated and Kandinsky moved to Moscow.
Kandinsky returned to Germany in 1921 and remained there until emigrating to France in 1934. He died in Neuilly-sur-Seine, near Paris, in 1944. Kandinsky is widely considered to be the father of modern abstract art.
Who Was Gabriele Muenter?
Muenter was born in 1877 in Berlin. At the age of 20, she enrolled in the Painting School for Ladies (Damen Kunstschule) in Duesseldorf and later moved to Munich to attend Kandinsky's Phalanx School.
During her years with Kandinsky, Muenter was an integral part of a circle of Munich avant-garde artists, which included Kandinsky, Paul Klee, August Macke, Alexei von Jawlensky and Franz Marc. She was also a member of the Blue Rider group.
Muenter House, or Russian House
Situated about 43 miles (70 km) south of Munich, the Bavarian town of Murnau is home to the Muenter House (often locally called the Russian House).
After her summers there with Kandinsky, Muenter made the house her permanent residence in the 1920s and lived there until her death in 1962. During the Third Reich, she hid many of Kandinsky's Blue Rider period paintings--they were considered "degenerate art" by the Nazis--in the basement, and later donated the collection to the Lenbachhaus Gallery in Munich, where they comprise an important part of its permanent collection.
Muenter House is now a public museum and features hand-painted accents by Kandinsky, a small research room, original paintings by Muenter and photos of the artists at home.
The most fascinating part of the house are the furniture and interiors painted by Kandinsky. While in Bavaria, he became influenced by regional folk art. He painted the banisters on the staircase to the second floor and other parts of the house with colorful floral and animal (particularly horses) motifs.
Kandinsky also decoratively painted various pieces of furniture, which are on display in the house in largely the same layout as they were during the years that he and Muenter lived there together.
A visit to the Muenter House provides a fascinating look at the early career of one of the most groundbreaking and influential artists of the 20th century. Photos and other displays show Kandinsky at work and play and offer a glimpse at his new, emerging abstract style. And brief tour of Murnau and the lake will help visitors see why Kandinsky so loved his summer retreat.
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