Farewell

Born in Moscow, Kandinsky was brought up in Odessa, where he trained as a lawyer before moving to Munich in 1898 to study art. At the time, Munich was a centre for printmaking, Jugendstil decorative arts, and the German Symbolist movement, led by the poet Stefan George. The knight in "The Farewell" is thought to bear George’s distinguished profile and reflects Kandinsky’s nostalgia for the St. George legend of Russian folk tales. As a heroic figure with redemptive power, the knight looks forward to the defining motif of Kandinsky’s Symbolist group, "Der Blaue Reiter" (The Blue Rider).

Kandinsky completed forty-eight woodcuts from 1902 to 1904 and remained a prolific printmaker throughout his career. Kandinsky once said: "color is the keyboard, the eyes are the harmonies, the soul is the piano with many strings. The artist is the hand that plays, touching one key or another, to cause vibrations in the soul." Beautiful.