Provenance:
the artist’s studio
the estate of the artist (No. L. 179)
Gabriele Münter and Johannes Eichner Foundation
Galerie Otto Stangl, Munich
Galerie Blaeser, Düsseldorf
Private collection, Hanover (since 1976)
Exhibition/Literature:
Annegret Hoberg, Helmut Friedel (eds.), Gabriele Münter: 1877–1962. Retrospektive. Exh. cat., Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Munich; Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt, Munich 1992, p. 294
In 1920, Gabriele Münter returned from Scandinavia (1915–20) to Germany, where she initially lived mainly in Murnau, Elmau, Munich and Berlin. After a creative crisis, partly caused by her break with Wassily Kandinsky, she began painting again in 1923. She produced landscape paintings of Murnau, the surrounding region and the countryside around Schloss Elmau, where Münter stayed on several occasions between 1920 and 1924, particularly frequently in 1923.
The oil painting ‘Gebirgsbach’ (Mountain Stream) shows the view across a stream lined with stones to wooded meadow slopes and a mighty mountain range. It depicts a sunny autumn day, as evidenced by the colouring of the foliage and the bright blue sky with white clouds. The landscape is rich in detail and rendered in a manner oriented towards visible reality. The motif corresponds to the oil painting ‘Frühling im Gebirge’ (oil/painting cardboard, estate no. L 167, whereabouts unknown), dated around 1942, whose motif can be topographically determined with precision thanks to a sketchbook. It shows the view across the Ferchenbach stream near Elmau towards the Wetterstein mountains. According to Annika Öhmer, ‘Gebirgslandschaft mit Bachlauf’ is an early version of the oil painting (L 167) from around 1942. (1) A dating of ‘Gebirgslandschaft mit Bachlauf’ to the 1920s is confirmed by formal comparisons with works by Münter dated 1923 (e.g. ‘Tal mit Bauernhäusern’, oil/painting cardboard, 1923, whereabouts unknown). (Text: Anette Brunner)
(1) See Annika Öhmer, in: Annegret Hoberg, Helmut Friedel (eds.), Gabriele Münter: 1877–1962.
