WASSILY KANDINSKY : “Der Blaue Reiter (the blue rider)”, 1903 - oil on canvas, 55- 65 cm. - Zurich, private collection

Kandinsky is one of the most important names in the 20 th century Art, traditionally considered as the creator of the abstraction. However, his first works, like this one, are tremendously interesting to constitute a link between the postimpressionism and the expressionism. In fact, Kandinsky always felt a great admiration for Claude Monet's works. Contemplating one of his haystacks in an exhibition in Moscow, Kandinsky commented: “And suddenly, for the first time, I saw a picture. I read in the catalogue that was a haystack, but I could not recognize it (…) I realized that there the object of the picture was missed (…) What I had perfectly present was the unsuspected -and until then hidden- power of the palette…”

“The blue rider” is, in addition to an extraordinary work for the mastery of the light and the colour, and the simplicity with which the painter creates a contrast between the movement of the rider and the static landscape of the foreground, the name of an editorial that grouped some of the main expressionists painters like Franz Marc or Kandinsky himself. “The blue rider” was neither a movement nor a school. It was just a group of several artists displeasures with the evolution of the movement “Die Bruke” (the Bridge). “The Blue Rider… The die is cast”, wrote Franz Marc. This movement ended when World War I dispersed its protagonists.