Heinrich Campendonk first had contact with the group in 1909, through the Neue Künstler Vereinigung München (N.K.V.M.), an idea born of discussions amongst Werefkin, Münter, Kandinsky and Jawlensky. In 1911, as a young man of 20, Campendonk participated in the formation of the Blaue Reiter, of which all four artists were also founders. Campendonk was mentored by the older members, especially Franz Marc.

By 1918/19, when these three works were created, the lives of all three artists had changed dramatically. Campendonk’s mentors Franz Marc and August Macke were both killed at the front during the war. After Campendonk’s discharge from the army in 1915 due to illness, he moved with his family to Seeshaupt, very close to Murnau. There he continued to paint, ever influenced by his fellow artists of the Blaue Reiter, but taking his own personal direction.

Münter and Kandinsky’s relationship began to deteriorate around 1913, and Kandinsky returned to Russia, eventually marrying Nina Nikolaevna Andreevskaya in 1917. Münter spent the war years in Scandinavia, and continued to work, in a style somewhat surprisingly imbued with hope, as in the view presented here, with its cheerful colours and patch of bright blue sea.

Werefkin and Jawlensky fled Germany to Switzerland at the outbreak of World War I. They eventually settled in Ascona, where Werefkin painted the work in our June auction, ‘Landschaft’. This was during her last, difficult years together with Jawlensky, before he returned to Germany to marry her housekeeper.