Severe in Sweet
1928
Vassily Kandinsky (Russian, 1866–1944)
Not on View

In 1928 Kandinsky created 25 oil paintings and more than 100 watercolors, Severe in Sweet being one of them. Kandinsky sent Severe in Sweet along with others to Galka Scheyer in Los Angeles for her to sell on consignment in 1933. She expressed great fondness for Severe in Sweet, and through correspondence, they worked out an arrangement for her to buy it for her own collection. In a letter dated December 30, 1938, she wrote to Kandinsky:

“This watercolor, in case you don’t remember it, has a light brown circle in the upper right-hand corner with brighter circles which renew themselves in the yellow space. Joined to these are some lines that resound with every renewal. For the circle soars and breathes, just as life, I am sure, constantly renews itself and resounds whenever it touches the lines that exist in space. It is one of your works that really says ‘Yes.’”

In his response, Kandinsky proposed the following offer: “The watercolor 318 Severe in Sweet with which you are flirting costs $40 net. For you the price would be $20 net.”

Details

  • Artist Name: Vassily Kandinsky (Russian, 1866–1944)
  • Title: Severe in Sweet
  • Date: 1928
  • Medium: Watercolor and colored ink on laid paper
  • Dimensions: 16-7/8 x 12-1/8 in. (42.9 x 30.8 cm)
  • Credit Line: Norton Simon Museum, The Blue Four Galka Scheyer Collection
  • Accession Number: P.1953.201
  • Copyright: © Norton Simon Museum

Object Information

The artist, July 1933 to;
Galka Scheyer, who purchased from the artist 1938-1940;
Pasadena Art Institute, Pasadena, 1953-1954;
Pasadena Art Museum, Pasadena,1954-1975;
Norton Simon Museum, 1975.

Kandinsky

  • Los Angeles, Stendahl Art Galleries, 1940-04-01 to 1940-04-20

Paintings by Wassily Kandinsky, the "Old Master" of Abstract Art

  • Oakland Art Gallery, 1935-01-02 to 1935-01-30
  • San Francisco Museum of Art, 1935-05-05 to 1935-06-09

Exposition d'aquarelles de Wassily Kandinsky

  • Paris, Galerie Zak, 1929-01-15 to 1929-01-31
  • The Hague, Kunstzaal de Bron, 1929-03-16 to 1929-04-12
  • Galerie Le Centaure (Brussels, Belgium), 1929-05-25 to 1929-06-05

Fifty Years Bauhaus

  • Pasadena, Pasadena Art Museum, 1969-08-25 to 1970-05-10

Permanent Collection Exhibition

The Universe: Creation, Constellations and the Cosmos

  • Norton Simon Museum, 2001-02-04 to 2001-06-04

Contemporary German Watercolor Painting

  • California Palace of the Legion of Honor, 1936-06-06 to 1936-08-01

Kandinsky

  • Norton Simon Museum, 1994-01-13 to 1994-09-11

Selections from the Permanent Collection

  • Pasadena Art Museum, 1971-07-13 to 1971-09-19

The Galka Scheyer Collection: Klee, Nolde, Jawlensky, Moholy-Nagy, Schmidt-Rottluff, Schwitters, Archipenko, Kandinsky, Lissitzky, Feininger, Kirchner, Dix_1

  • La Jolla, Art Center in La Jolla, 1960-07-05 to 1960-08-14

Selections from Feininger, Jawlensky, Kandinsky, Paul Klee. The Blue Four Galka E. Scheyer Collection

  • Seattle Art Museum, 1956-10-10 to 1956-11-04
  • Portland, Portland Art Museum, 1956-11-08 to 1956-11-30
  • , 1957-01-01 to 1957-01-31
  • Marion Koogler McNay Art Institute, 1957-03-02 to 1957-04-01
  • Kansas City, William Rockhill Nelson Gallery, 1957-11-15 to 1957-12-15
  • San Francisco Museum of Art, 1958-01-14 to 1958-02-23
  • Vancouver Art Gallery, 1956-07 to 1956-08-31

50 years bauhaus

  • Stuttgart, Wurttembergischer Kunstverein, 1968-05-05 to 1968-07-28
  • Royal Academy of Arts (Great Britain), 1968-09-19 to 1968-10-27
  • Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, 1968-11-30 to 1969-01-01
  • Paris, Musee National d'Art Moderne, 1969-04-01 to 1969-06-22
  • Illinois Institute of Technology, 1969-08-25 to 1969-09-26
  • Toronto, Art Gallery of Ontario, 1969-12-05 to 1970-02-01
  • Pasadena Art Museum, 1970-03-16 to 1970-04-26
  • Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, 1970 to 1971
  • Tokyo, National Museum of Modern Art, 1971 to 1971

Klee, Kandinsky, Jawlensky: Works from the Bauhaus Period

  • School of Art Gallery, The Ohio State University, 1966-11-11 to 1966-11-30

East Meets West: Russian Art from the 18th through the 20th Century

  • Norton Simon Museum, 1987-10-01 to 1988-04-17

Kandinsky Paintings and Graphics: Retrospective of Kandinsky's Bauhaus Years

  • Norton Simon Museum, 1989-01-19 to 1990-01-14

Selections from the Galka E. Scheyer Blue Four Collection

  • Pasadena Museum of Modern Art, 1973-10-02 to 1973-11-18

My Four Kings: Galka Scheyer and the Blue Four

  • Norton Simon Museum, 2002-12-13 to 2003-04-14

The Blue Four-Galka Scheyer Collection From The Norton Simon Museum

  • Henry Art Gallery, 1997-07-17 to 1997-10-05

Permanent and Loan Collection, 1973

  • Pasadena Museum of Modern Art, 1973-01-30 to 1973-12-31

The Spirit of Modernism: Galka Scheyer in the New World

  • Norton Simon Museum, 1994-11-17 to 1996-01-14
  • Haas, Robert B., Du, p. 29
  • The Blue Four Galka Scheyer Collection, Norton Simon Museum of Art at Pasadena, 1976, no. 240 pp. 83, 91
  • Campbell Abdo, Sara, Wassily Kandinsky, 1994, p. 30
  • Barnett, Vivian Endicott, Kandinsky Watercolours: Catalogue Raisonné, 1922-1944, 1994, no. 908
  • Barnett, Vivian Endicott, The Blue Four Collection at the Norton Simon Museum, 2002, no. 293 pp. 253-255
  • Ana Salvador, Dessiner avec...Vassily Kandinsky, 2016, p. #7
  • Gilbert Holzgang, Galka Scheyer : Ein Leben für Kunst und Kreativität, 2023, p. 257 (ill.)

Additional Artwork by Artist

Blue Vassily Kandinsky 1922
Lithograph for the Fourth Bauhaus Portfolio Vassily Kandinsky 1922
Lithograph No. III Vassily Kandinsky 1925

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