Sketch 2 for Composition VII

Wassily Kandinsky

Oil on canvas

Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus

Sketch 2 for Composition VII is one of the many preparatory oil studies Wassily Kandinsky created in 1913 as part of his rigorous planning process for his monumental painting Composition VII. Kandinsky produced more than thirty preliminary sketches and studies—in watercolor, oil, pencil, and ink—before executing the final canvas, using these works to develop color relationships, structural dynamics, and compositional balance. The sketch displays the swirling, non-representational forms and vivid chromatic energy characteristic of Kandinsky's mature abstract style, reflecting his belief that color and form could communicate spiritual and emotional states directly, independent of recognizable subject matter. As a founding figure of Der Blaue Reiter and a pioneer of pure abstraction, Kandinsky regarded the Composition series as his most deliberate and significant works, each arrived at through sustained intellectual and artistic preparation.