Saint Vladimir

On the back of this small pane Kandinsky wrote, in German, that he painted it in June 1911 in Murnau, the market town in the Bavarian foothills where he spent long stretches in these years. Gabriele Münter, the painter who shared his life there, added the saint's name in her own hand. The craft was Bavarian, the model Russian. Vladimir was the prince of Kyiv who accepted Christianity for his people around 988, and the Orthodox Church honours him as one of the patron saints of Russia. Scholars have pointed out how closely this glass follows a Russian icon, both in its subject and in the way it is laid out. The museum's catalogue lists what it shows: the saint, a cross, a church on a hill, plants and water. The pane is under 30 centimetres tall and still sits in its original painted frame.