Private Collection
Galerie Resche, Paris (acquired by 1984)
Private Collection, Switzerland

Paris, Galerie des Tendances Nouvelles, Les Tendances Nouvelles, 1904, n.n.
Tokyo, National Museum of Modern Art & Kyoto, National Museum of Modern Art, Kandinsky, 1987, no. 3, illustrated in color in the catalogue
Tokyo, Fuji Television Gallery, Wassily Kandinsky, n.n., illustrated in the catalogue
Lugano, Museo Cantonale d'Arte, Kandinsky nelle collezioni Svizzere, 1995, no. 2
New York, Helly Nahmad Gallery, Kandinsky, Sounds of Color, 2004, n.n., illustrated in color in the catalogue

Hans K. Roethel & Jean K. Benjamin, Kandinsky: Catalogue Raisonné of the Oil Paintings, 1900-1915, vol. I, Ithaca, 1982, no. 520
Vivian Endicott Barnett, Kandinsky Watercolours, Catalogue Raisonné, 1900-1921, vol. I, Ithaca, 1992, no. 7, illustrated p. 48

In very good condition. The canvas is unlined. Surface is somewhat dirty. The artist's technique of scraping surface with a pallet knife has exposed some of the canvasweave on the surface under the paint layer; this is inherent to the artist's process. Some minor cracking in the darker pigments on the composition's left-hand side. Tape surrounds the edges and the canvas is strip lined. Under UV a repair of about ¼ inch diameter is visible in the lower center of light-blue water, otherwise fine.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Kandinsky painted Kochel—See, Nebel during the summer of 1902 when he and his students lived and worked in Kochel, a Bavarian town south of Munich set near a large lake at the foot of the Alps. “In his sketchbooks, Kandinsky occasionally made pencil sketches for paintings, although most of the small oil studies appear to have been executed directly and quickly with the palette knife. In the artist’s words: 'In my studies, I let myself go. I had little thought for houses and trees, drawing colored lines and blobs on the canvas with my palette knife, making them sing just as powerfully as I knew how’” (Vivian Endicott Barnett & Helmut Friedel, Vasily Kandinsky, A Colorful Life, New York, 1996, p. 46).

The summer of 1902 held particular meaning for Kandinsky. It was during this stay in Kochel that his relationship with one of his students, Gabriele Münter, deepened (see fig. 1). “Each student worked individually, painting and sketching in different locations, with Kandinsky moving among them to offer his critique. ‘Once,’ Münter later recalled, ‘I was painting at the lake and K. came for the critique. He looked at my paint box and found bad colors there, e.g. Schwienfurt green and others. He threw them all onto the grass, as forbidden. And I used only good colors that he permitted after that. On walks he talked of colors and color mixtures’” (Reinhold Heller, Gabriele Münter, The Years of Expressionism, 1903-1920 (exhibition catalogue), Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, 1998-99, pp. 54-55). Only a year later, in 1903, the couple became engaged, though it was kept a secret as Kandinsky was still married at the time.

While the present painting may seem far removed from the later abstract works of the artist, Kandinsky saw his progression as rather logical: “Kandinsky bases his theory about his own artistic development on the principle of ‘natural’ growth. On no account does he wish to give the impression that his art constitutes a radical break with tradition. And it is precisely his repeated assertion that all that is new in art must grow out of what went before which might also be the reason why Kandinsky, much later, during his Bauhaus years, was particularly delighted whenever he came across one of his own works from an earlier period” (Vivian Endicott Barnett & Helmut Friedel, Vasily Kandinsky, A Colorful Life, New York, 1996, p. 17).