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and rarely exhibited works on loan. One important goal<br />
of the Foundation is to prepare a catalogue raisonné of<br />
Gabriele Münter’s paintings that will document all oil<br />
paintings created by the artist with information about their<br />
provenance, exhibition history, and the relevant literature.<br />
A key part of the estate is the Münter House in Murnau.<br />
Münter and Kandinsky frequently stayed in the house<br />
in the years 1909-1914. She lived there from 1931 to<br />
her death in 1962, from 1936 on with her companion<br />
Johannes Eichner (1886-1958). After renovations in 1998-<br />
99, it now appears as it did between 1909 and 1914. Richly<br />
appointed and decorated with paintings and reverse glass<br />
paintings by Kandinsky and Münter and popular art from<br />
their collection as well as the artists’ own hand-painted<br />
furniture, the house is now a museum which vividly<br />
conveys the atmosphere that prevailed here before<br />
<strong>World</strong> War I.<br />
During the National Socialist’s reign of terror, Münter<br />
hid her works in the basement of the house in Murnau,<br />
along with numerous others by Kandinsky, the “Blue<br />
Rider” protagonists, and their circle. Thus she was able<br />
to rescue them from certain seizure and perhaps even<br />
destruction. Kandinsky had to leave Germany in such<br />
haste at the outbreak of war in 1914 that most of his<br />
belongings, including his entire collection, had to be left<br />
behind in Munich. His efforts to reclaim his possessions<br />
— the paintings especially — once the war was over led to a<br />
protracted legal battle with Münter, which was not resolved<br />
until 1926. While Kandinsky had some of his paintings<br />
restored to him, Münter was allowed to retain the vast bulk<br />
of them. For many years, the collection was left to languish<br />
in a warehouse in Munich; but once the threat posed by<br />
the National Socialists became imminent, Münter retrieved<br />
the works in storage and took them back to Murnau with<br />
her. There they remained, hidden from view, right up to<br />
the nineteen-fifties.<br />
158<br />
Gabriele Münter, Landschaft mit gelbem Haus, 1916, Öl auf Leinwand, 41,5 x 52,7 cm, Privatsammlung
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