Wassily Kandinsky

Lyrisches, 1911

Oil on canvas, 94 x 130 cm
Inventory number: 1430 (MK)

Before 1921 this painting was bought by Marie Tak van Poortvliet (1871-1936). In 1932 she gave several of her finest paintings on long-term loan to the Gemeentemuseum in The Hague and Museum Boijmans and upon her death in 1936 she split her bequest between the two museums. In this way Lyrisches by Kandinsky came to reside in Rotterdam and Mondrian's Red Tree ended up in The Hague.

The fact that Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen already owned this masterpiece by Kandinsky was an important factor in the decision taken in 1964 to purchase a further eleven works by this pioneer of modern art, all of which came from the collection of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York.