Wassily Kandinsky. Group in Crinolines. 1909. Oil on canvas. 95.6 × 150.3 cm. Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York Solomon R. Guggenheim Founding Collection.

 “Group in Crinolines” is a vibrant oil painting about three feet tall by five feet wide. It depicts an outdoor gathering of eight people dressed in Biedermaier fashion, wearing crinoline or structure petticoats designed to hold out a skirt popular at various times since the mid-19th century. While it is representational, it's also fantastical in its non-naturalistic use of jewel like colours. The foreground is composed of patches of pink, orange, yellow and white, blending together purples, blues, greens, coral and cadmium red build a landscape and sky behind the figures. The figures shapes have been outlined and then painted in thickly to the edges or beyond. Texture brushstrokes give a sense of direction and movement. The action of the painting is displayed horizontally like a sculptural frieze, with the figures generally facing its centre point. On the far left a man wears a long black coat cinched at the waist and puffing out in an A-shaped to his knees. He also wears white pants, delicate black shoes and a tall top hat painted in lavender tones. His face is painted in a few bright patches of peach and yellow and bold red circles form his cheeks. Simple lines indicate his close ties, a black J-shape forms his nose in partial profile, and a U-shape forms his smiling mouth below. His hands or gloves are quick gold brush strokes. A woman stands closely next to him, her head leaning toward him. Her face is painted bright white with pink dots on her cheeks. She wears a white bonnet with a green interior and pink brim painted with wavy lines like lays. Her golden-mustard yellow dress is touch with lime and jade green, and her crinoline forms a white shade, ballooning from her waist to her feet. Beside these figures, two women sit, gesturing at a small white table displaying a fruit bowl stacked with multi-coloured fruit and a bulbous vase filled with goldfish. One woman wears a coral bonnet, lavender top, a coat and dress covered in loose patches of wine red, forest green, turquoise and mustard yellow. A woman to the right faces the seated women. Her profile hidden by a yellow bonnet. She wears a white dress and crinoline with vivid pink fabric draped over her shoulders. Another man stands in profile to her right, wearing a short black coat and crinoline with a very tall white hat. The final two men stand behind the seated women at a distance. Both the face and hair of one of these men are painted in bright yellow, and the poofy shape of his hair mimics a white cloud just above his head. Painted in Munich in 1909, two years after Kandinsky lived and worked in Paris, this canvas attests to the appreciation of modern French art and radical Phoveus colour schemes. These quirky and exuberant work indicates a shift from his early fairy tale pictures to highly abstracted images. Kandinsky would soon write that: “variation of colour, like those of music, awaken in the soul. Much finer vibrations than words could.” In what ways does this work express emotion through Kandinsky’s use of colour line and form?


Last modified: Tuesday, 18 April 2023, 3:42 PM