Munich - The Isar

Along the Isar, the water flows downwards as a cool ribbon, flanked by a bank whose sloping embankment takes up almost the entire right-hand half of the picture; broad strokes of green, blue, grey and sandy yellow shape the slope, whilst across the river an orange bridge lies beneath the pale sky. Kandinsky constructs the 1901 Munich view not from smooth surfaces, but from visibly placed patches of colour: Dark treetops cluster to the right above the slope, the riverbed slopes to the left, and between these two points a light-coloured path leads to the bridge, so that the landscape appears both firmly composed and in motion. In particular, the abrupt shifts between rusty orange and blue lend the scene a sense of restlessness; even the sky does not appear empty, but is interwoven with grey, violet and small warm hues.

For this piece on Leonardo (satin) canvas, Lena has chosen to present the painting without a mat - and that is precisely what this frame from the Academie range achieves: it frames the work, no more and no less. At just 18 millimetres wide, the gold moulding on the 48 x 67-centimetre canvas is little more than a hint of a border, which suits the bold painting well, as it is not overshadowed by any other mass; yet the 26-millimetre height at its highest point still gives the frame enough substance. Anyone who wants to see more of the painting than the frame has come to the right place. In terms of colour, there is certainly something happening here: the matt gold sits directly alongside the blue-grey sections of water and sky, allowing their coolness to stand out more clearly, but near the bridge it comes strikingly close to the ochre and orange tones there, so that at the upper horizon there is almost a transition from the painted bank into the frame. At the bottom, by contrast, the dark green areas form a sharp edge against the gold, and the fine dark dots within the gold frame prevent the tone from appearing too jarring against Kandinsky’s broken colour scheme.

This relationship can be seen most clearly in the top right-hand corner: There, the warm gold borders simultaneously on blackish green, coppery orange and a small patch of sky blue - this is the spot where my gaze lingers longest as I look at the painting.