Kochel, Lake and Pier I

Catalogue identity

The painting is catalogued as Kochel, Lake and Pier I, attributed to Wassily Kandinsky. The supplied record identifies the genre as landscape painting, and the title itself names the place depicted: Kochel, a Bavarian lake setting. The work is dated 1902. That date is the date recorded for the painting; the record establishes no separate depicted date, and the scene it shows should not be assumed to correspond to a different moment in time than the making of the picture. The dimensions are given as 24 cm in height and 33 cm in width, a modest scale for an oil landscape. The accession number is AM 81-65-12.(Wikimedia Commons: Kochel, Lake and Pier I, n.d.)

Interpretation

This identity matters within a larger history of material culture because it fixes the object as a small, dated landscape by Kandinsky from 1902, a specific point of reference rather than a general image of a lake. The place name in the title, the landscape genre and the recorded dimensions together allow the picture to be located precisely in the artist's catalogued output and distinguished from other views of the same site, since the title carries the numeral I. The accession number AM 81-65-12 provides the further means of identifying this particular object within its holding institution. These are catalogue facts, and they support description and comparison; they do not by themselves establish what the artist intended the view to mean.(Wikimedia Commons: Kochel, Lake and Pier I, n.d.)

The painting is titled 'Kochel, Lake and Pier I' and is by Wassily Kandinsky.(Wikimedia Commons: Kochel, Lake and Pier I, n.d.)

The painting is dated 1902.(Wikimedia Commons: Kochel, Lake and Pier I, n.d.)

The dimensions are 24 cm in height and 33 cm in width.(Wikimedia Commons: Kochel, Lake and Pier I, n.d.)

The accession number is AM 81-65-12.(Wikimedia Commons: Kochel, Lake and Pier I, n.d.)

The genre is landscape painting.(Wikimedia Commons: Kochel, Lake and Pier I, n.d.)

The recorded composition

Visual observation

The recorded composition of Kochel, Lake and Pier I is described as a landscape in which a wooden pier occupies the right side of the image, a dark mountain massif rises in the background, choppy lake water fills the scene, and a small yellow boat sits near the shoreline. Only the pier is reported as a clear human structure, and it is placed to the right rather than at the centre of the view. The record does not describe figures, additional buildings, vegetation or other detail beyond these elements, so the account of what is visible should be confined to the pier, the mountain mass, the moving water and the boat. Because these are recorded observations of the picture rather than identifications of particular mountains, shorelines or types of boat, the description establishes the arrangement of forms without naming the specific topography or the construction of the pier and vessel.(Wikimedia Commons: Kochel, Lake and Pier I, n.d.)

Interpretation

The account singles out the small yellow boat as the brightest note near the shore, set against the broad stretch of choppy water and the heavy dark mass of the mountains. Read together with the placement of the pier on the right, this produces a composition organised around a contrast between a small, luminous element close to the viewer's shoreline and the large, dark form behind. That contrast is a matter of described appearance rather than documented intention. Nothing in the supplied record states what Kandinsky meant by the view, whether the yellow of the boat carried symbolic value, or what mood he sought, so the tonal and colour relationship can be described but not assigned a meaning. The painting can be analysed as a study of scale and tonal opposition while leaving its wider significance open.(Wikimedia Commons: Kochel, Lake and Pier I, n.d.)

Visual observation

The painting shows a wooden pier on the right, a dark mountain massif in the background, choppy lake water, and a small yellow boat near the shoreline.(Wikimedia Commons: Kochel, Lake and Pier I, n.d.)

Documented support and medium

Kochel, Lake and Pier I is recorded as an oil painting executed on canvas board, a support designation that pairs a fluid oil medium with a rigid or semi-rigid prepared board rather than stretched fabric. The recorded dimensions are 24 cm in height and 33 cm in width, a small format consistent with the board support. The work is dated 1902 and is catalogued as a landscape by Wassily Kandinsky, held in the collection of the Musée National d'Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, under accession number AM 81-65-12. These particulars establish the material class of the object and its institutional identity; the supplied record does not document a primer, ground, varnish, pigment analysis, or conservation treatment, so the account of materials must remain at the level of medium and support rather than layer-by-layer technical description.(Wikimedia Commons: Kochel, Lake and Pier I, n.d.)

Interpretation

The pairing of a small oil-on-board landscape with an identifiable Bavarian subject situates the work within a period of Kandinsky's activity before the abstract works for which he is best known. Read against the later history of his career, the object matters as evidence that landscape and place, here the lake at Kochel, were part of his working repertoire in 1902. This framing is an interpretive synthesis drawn from the documented date, medium, genre and subject rather than a claim about the artist's intentions, which the supplied record does not establish.(Wikimedia Commons: Kochel, Lake and Pier I, n.d.)

The medium is oil on canvas board.(Wikimedia Commons: Kochel, Lake and Pier I, n.d.)

Collection and display

Wassily Kandinsky's painting Kochel, Lake and Pier I is dated 1902 and is held in the collection of the Musée National d'Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, where it carries the accession number AM 81-65-12. The work is an oil on canvas board measuring 24 cm in height and 33 cm in width, and it belongs to the genre of landscape painting. These particulars, together with the title that names Kochel as the depicted place, come from the collection-oriented record of the work and establish the object's identity, support, scale and present institutional home. The date of 1902 is the date assigned to the painting itself; nothing in the supplied record fixes a separate date for the scene the landscape shows.(Wikimedia Commons: Kochel, Lake and Pier I, n.d.)

In the picture a wooden pier occupies the right side of the composition, placed away from the centre. A dark mountain massif rises in the background, the lake water in front of it is choppy, and a small yellow boat sits near the shoreline. The pier is the clearest human structure in the scene, while the yellow boat registers as the brightest note near the shore against the broad stretch of moving water and the heavy dark mass of the mountains. This description of form and placement is what the record supports about the painting's appearance; it does not by itself supply the artist's intention, a symbolic reading, or an account of the mood the work was meant to convey, so those remain open rather than inferred.(Wikimedia Commons: Kochel, Lake and Pier I, n.d.)

The painting is in the collection of the Musée National d'Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris.(Wikimedia Commons: Kochel, Lake and Pier I, n.d.)

Recorded values

Interpretation

A calculated working insurance estimate records an estimated value of US$2M to US$8M for Kochel, Lake and Pier I, generated on 2026-10-30. The figure is explicitly a broad working range, not an official insurance value, appraisal, auction estimate, auction result, or sale price. Its methodology was to build an envelope from the confirmed context alone: an authenticated 1902 oil on canvas board by Wassily Kandinsky, a high-prominence modern master, held by the Musée National d'Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, under accession AM 81-65-12. No comparable sales, official appraisals, or private insurance records were consulted, so the range rests on judgment about the object's attributes rather than on market evidence.(Wikimedia Commons: Kochel, Lake and Pier I, n.d.)

The calculation treats two object-specific factors as pulling in opposite directions. The small scale, 24 by 33 cm, and the early date of 1902 are treated as moderating factors relative to large, iconic Kandinsky oils, while the secure museum provenance and confirmed attribution support placement in the upper half of the range. The result is described as a conservative, judgment-based starting point intended for manual review by a qualified specialist, with actual insured values to be established through physical inspection, condition assessment, and current market evidence. The number therefore documents a reasoning process and its stated limits, not a valuation of record.(Wikimedia Commons: Kochel, Lake and Pier I, n.d.)

Read against the object record, the valuation estimate takes its premises from facts the Wikimedia Commons documentation supplies: the title Kochel, Lake and Pier I, the attribution to Wassily Kandinsky, the date 1902, the medium of oil on canvas board, the dimensions of 24 cm in height and 33 cm in width, the landscape genre, and the collection of the Musée National d'Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, with accession number AM 81-65-12. The same record describes the scene the estimate never addresses: a wooden pier on the right, a dark mountain massif in the background, choppy lake water, and a small yellow boat near the shoreline. The valuation is built entirely on the identification and holding data, and its usefulness for research depends on those underlying facts remaining as stated.(Wikimedia Commons: Kochel, Lake and Pier I, n.d.)

Working estimate

Calculated working insurance estimate, not a sale price: Estimated value: US$2M to US$8M Recorded date: Working calculation, generated 2026-10-30. Methodology: Broad working range derived from the confirmed context only: an authenticated 1902 oil on canvas board by Wassily Kandinsky, a high-prominence modern master, held by the Musee National d'Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, under accession AM 81-65-12. The small scale (24 x 33 cm) and early date are treated as moderating factors relative to large, iconic Kandinsky oils, while the secure museum provenance and confirmed attribution support the upper half of the range. No comparable sales, official appraisals, or private insurance records were consulted; the range is a conservative, judgment-based envelope intended as a starting point for manual review by a qualified specialist. Qualification: This is a model-generated working range for manual review only. It is not an official insurance value, appraisal, auction estimate, auction result, or sale price. No comparable sales or private insurance records were accessed. Actual insured values should be established by a qualified appraiser or insurer using physical inspection, condition assessment, and current market evidence.(Wikimedia Commons: Kochel, Lake and Pier I, n.d.)