"Straße nach Weilheim" (Road to Weilheim) can be brought in connection with a note in the archive of the Gabriele Münter and Johannes Eichner Foundation. It can be assumed that this work depicts the road to Weilheim. In 1908, the year it was built, today's Bundesstraße 2 was still a tranquil country road. Looking south, Gabriele Münter could see the mountain range on the horizon through the trees. It was precisely this view, which contains the essential elements of the so-called "Blaue Land" that fascinated the artist so much.
Our painting was created in what was arguably the most important year of Gabriele Münter's artistic career. In late summer, Gabriele Münter met up with Wassily Kandinsky, Alexej von Jawlensky and Marianne von Werefkin in Murnau for painting sessions. They stayed at the Griesbräu Inn on the Obermarkt and explored the surroundings of the small farming village with their easels and brushes, sketchpads, and pencils, rounded off by discussions about the latest artistic issues and new goals. They had all been traveling over the previous years and were able to draw on the impressions gathered. During this creative shared time away from the social conventions and constraints of Munich, an artistic revolution characterized by great dynamism happened, a radical departure from the Impressionist and late Impressionist style of painting. Here she made a decisive turn towards synthetic, expressive color painting, which would have a decisive influence on subsequent art history.
The vast landscape with the tree-lined avenue and the mountains is shown in homogeneously painted areas and framed by loosely set contours. Gabriele Münter only had to walk along the street that led from her accommodation at the time, the inn "Zum Griesbräu" inn, in the direction of Weilheim, and turn south a little outside the village, to enjoy this expansive view of the landscape, which would accompany her for many years to come and serve as a source of inspiration. In the autumn of 1908, the artist captured the atmospheric landscape with a few, slightly nuanced hues, which was entirely in line with the approach of her companion. (Quoted from: Helmut Friedel, Annegret Hoberg, Der Blaue Reiter, Munich 2000, p. 24).
Looking back in 1911, Gabriele Münter herself confirmed the relevance of the paintings created in the first Murnau autumn: "After a short period of agony, I made a great leap - from painting nature - more or less in impressionist style - to perceiving a meaning - to abstracting - to giving an extract" (B. Salmen, A. Hoberg, in: exhib. cat. 1908/2008 - Vor 100 Jahren. Kandinsky, Münter, Jawlensky, Werefkin in Murnau, Murnau 2008, p.24). Our painting, which has been in the family for many decades and has never been exhibited, is an important creation from this epochal period of awakening. [EH]