Blue Mountains, Blue Riders
Gabriele Münter and the evolution of an extraordinary sense of colour and form
“Then I saw the Berggeist inn down below and the way the road climbed up and the blue mountain behind and little red clouds in the evening sky. I quickly sketched the picture that presented itself to me. Then it was like I had woke up and had the sensation as if I were a bird that had sung its song.”
Thus, Gabriele Münter, at 80, recalled the revelation she experienced 50 years earlier when she conceived her painting The Blue Mountain in 1908 while sketching on location. It describes her leap from impressionist landscapes to the expressionist style, how she moved “from copying nature to feeling the content of things.”
As someone who lives among mountains, I can appreciate how this painting distills a scene. The bright colours, simple shapes, and flat blue mountain against a summer sunset evoke the print-like, two-dimensional appearance of distant landscape at this time of day. It captures a moment in the fleeting light that evokes a sense of privilege at being in the right place at the right time to witness such beauty. It can be a spiritual revelation. One that many artists have celebrated since the earliest landscapes painted on classical Chinese scrolls.
