Moscow I

In 1914 Germany declared war on Russia, and Kandinsky was forced to leave Munich and return to Moscow. He lamented: “Of the 16 years that I have been living in Germany, I have given myself entirely to the German art world. How am I now suddenly supposed to feel myself a foreigner?” At 50 years old, he was starting a new life. The move to Moscow marked a profound break. The year 1915 was a time of depression and self-doubt, during which he did not paint a single picture. During this period Kandinsky painted Moscow I. He wrote, “I would love to paint a large landscape of Moscow—taking elements from everywhere and combining them into a single picture—weak and strong parts, mixing everything together in the same way as the world is mixed of different elements. It must be like an orchestra”. Moscow I contains some of the same romantic fairy-tale qualities of his early paintings, fused with dramatic forms and colors. “The sun dissolves the whole of Moscow into a single spot, which, like a wild tuba, sets all one’s soul vibrating” .