Tunis, Coastal Landscape II

Kandinsky spent the winter of 1904 into 1905 in Tunis, and on its beaches he worked the way he did on all his travels in those years: outdoors, from life, with a small board, a palette and a knife in place of a brush. The knife is what to look for here. Accounts of the trip describe him sketching little seascapes on the shore in paint that became increasingly thick and paste-like, and in this view sky, far shore and beach are all laid down in long, flat, sideways strokes. The support is cardboard faced with canvas, about the size of a large book, and he inscribed it simply Tunis 1905. The Pompidou also lists it under a second title, Tunis, la baie, a name several of his views of the bay share.