In Gabriele Münter's major 2018 retrospective, her interior scenes received particular recognition under the title “Gelebte Orte” (Lived Places). The present work, “Kartenspieler” (Card Players), is part of this group. Münter usually drew on her own experiences for depictions of this type; the figure constellation can therefore be understood as a direct representation of a social setting she was a part of. One well-known example of this habit is the painting "Erma Bossi und Wassily Kandinsky am Tisch“, in which she does not portray herself but instead depicts those close to her. As a graphic chronicler, Münter succeeded in creating unmistakable characterizations of individual types through her clear compositions.
The Gabriele Münter and Johannes Eichner Foundation also holds a late painting entitled “Würfelspieler” (Dice Players, 1930, inv. P 127); as early as 1917/18, the gallery “Der Sturm” published a drawing by Münter featuring card-playing figures, whose identities are not documented either. It cannot be said with certainty who the figures depicted in this painting are.

The relationships between Münter, Herwarth, and Nell Walden are central to understanding Münter's reception. Through Wassily Kandinsky, Münter met Herwarth Walden in 1912; immediately thereafter, a productive collaboration began. This had a lasting impact on Münter's exhibition activities. Münter decided to discontinue her representation by Hans Goltz and entrusted Herwath Walden with presenting her work at Galerie 'Der Sturm'. In 1913, she was given prominent representation at the “First German Autumn Salon” with six paintings; in the following years, “Der Sturm” published Münters' woodcuts and drawings and showed her work in several exhibitions. Walden singled out Münter as an independent artist from the context of ‘Der Blaue Reiter’—in 1914, he dedicated an extensive retrospective with more than fifty paintings to her; this was followed in 1916 by an exhibition in Kristiania, jointly conceived with Kandinsky.

The connections to the Waldens were not exclusively professional: Nell Walden describes visits to Kandinsky and Münter in Murnau (early summer 1914). During Münter's stay in Scandinavia, she was temporarily accommodated with Anna Roslund, Nell's sister, whom she also portrayed in 1917. The card players could be based on a gathering at the Walden home or one of Münter's visits to the gallery owner and his wife, Nell, or it could show one of the last gatherings at the card table with Kandinsky, who had to leave Germany as a Russian citizen when the war broke out in 1914. [EH]