Idyllic seclusion in the country. Without distraction. Without constant external stimuli. This is what magically attracts the painters Wassily Kandinsky, his life partner Gabriele Münter and their artist friends Marianne von Werefkin and Alexej von Jawlensky. Here in Murnau, far from the Munich art scene, they can work in peace. This is also where artistic progress comes from. All four artists find their own, new means of expression. It seems as if they need to stay here and at exactly this time. Between 1908 and 1914, for example, Wassily Kandinsky created many views of Murnau. This work expresses a progressive abstraction. This began on his first visit to Murnau. On a small piece of cardboard, Kandinsky sketched the view from the window of his hotel "Griesbräu". The painter breaks down the view of the place into individual patches of color. The German art historian and art critic Will Grohmann describes it like this: "Kandinsky has not yet arrived at the picture without an object. But the objects lose their priority in Murnau... [...] In the Murnau pictures with a church from 1910, architecture and landscape come into motion." The "pictures in motion" also include the "Study for Murnau with Church II" from 1910 shown here, the preliminary version of a large version. It is the view from the Münter House on Kottmüller-Allee back to the town. On the right of the picture is St. Nicholas Church with its characteristic tower. Next to it is the girls' school, which had just been built at the time. Its red roof tiles shine out freshly. On the left you can see the Murnau Castle with its offset gables, which Kandinsky simply resolves as an "M". Simple houses line meadows and mountain slopes. The dark mountains in the background look like huge waves shaking up the town. The gravestones to the right of the church cast their shadows behind them. It is evening in Murnau. Wassily Kandinsky and Gabriele Münter have lived in the house on Kottmüller-Allee since the summer of 1909. At first they only rented it for the summer. Kandinsky advises buying it and in August Münter buys the house. "[...] my house, which you had to have at any price for our old age." That is what Münter accused him of in June 1922, six years after their separation. Two days after the outbreak of war in 1914, Kandinsky traveled alone from Switzerland to Russia. Gabriele Münter traveled to neutral Scandinavia in 1915. She hoped to see them again. This actually happened at an exhibition. But Kandinsky returned to Russia. He eventually broke off contact. It was not until 1931 that Gabriele Münter returned to Murnau, where she lived until her death in 1962. The "Study for Murnau II" shown here is a preliminary version of a larger version. This was initially in the Van Abbe Museum in Eindhoven, the Netherlands. In spring 2023, the painting was restituted and auctioned.