''The Blue Rider'' (German: ''Der Blaue Reiter'') is an oil painting executed in Bavaria in 1903 by the Russian emigré artist
Wassily Kandinsky
Wassily Wassilyevich Kandinsky (; rus, Василий Васильевич Кандинский, Vasiliy Vasilyevich Kandinskiy, vɐˈsʲilʲɪj vɐˈsʲilʲjɪvʲɪtɕ kɐnʲˈdʲinskʲɪj; – 13 December 1944) was a Russian painter a ...
. It is now held in a private collection in Zurich, and shares its name with the
art movement
An art movement is a tendency or style in art with a specific common philosophy or goal, followed by a group of artists during a specific period of time, (usually a few months, years or decades) or, at least, with the heyday of the movement defi ...
he would co-found with
Franz Marc in the early 1910s.
Background
Kandinsky was born in Moscow in 1866, the only son of a tea merchant.
When his parents divorced, he was sent to live with an aunt; it was his life there when he first discovered the magic of colours. At university, he decided to study Economics and Law, passing his exams "with ease".
Shortly after marrying his cousin, after seeing one in
Monet
Oscar-Claude Monet (, , ; 14 November 1840 – 5 December 1926) was a French painter and founder of impressionist painting who is seen as a key precursor to modernism, especially in his attempts to paint nature as he perceived it. During ...
's series of paintings
''Haystacks'', he was faced with a dilemma to be either a professor, or to begin a career as an artist. He decided to learn painting, and thus, in 1896, the thirty-year-old went to Munich, Germany.
Description
It depicts a horseman in a blue cloak galloping through a meadow on a white horse with a forest in the background. The painting itself is unremarkable, but represented an important milestone on Kandinsky's artistic transition from impressionism to modern abstract art, of which he was one of the pioneers. It was one of his last impressionist works and contains early signs of the abstractionism that would become his forte. The color blue in particular was to have a spiritual significance for the artist,
[ ] as it did to his German painter friend Marc.
The other significance of the work is that it shared its German title (
Der Blaue Reiter
''Der Blaue Reiter'' (The Blue Rider) is a designation by Wassily Kandinsky and Franz Marc for their exhibition and publication activities, in which both artists acted as sole editors in the almanac of the same name, first published in mid-May ...
) with the name of the group of progressive artists co-founded by Kandinsky in 1911, which published an almanac and organised exhibitions of their work.
See also
*
Der Blaue Reiter
''Der Blaue Reiter'' (The Blue Rider) is a designation by Wassily Kandinsky and Franz Marc for their exhibition and publication activities, in which both artists acted as sole editors in the almanac of the same name, first published in mid-May ...
*
Alexej von Jawlensky
Alexej Georgewitsch von Jawlensky (russian: Алексе́й Гео́ргиевич Явле́нский, translit=Alekséy Geórgiyevich Yavlénskiy) (13 March 1864 – 15 March 1941), surname also spelt as Yavlensky, was a Russian expressioni ...
*
Expressionism
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Blue Rider (painting), The
1903 paintings
Paintings by Wassily Kandinsky
Horses in art