Spring, around Augsburg

Catalogue title, attribution and date

The object is catalogued as Spring, around Augsburg, attributed to Wassily Kandinsky and dated 1902. The title on which this account rests names both a season and a place, and it qualifies the place: the painting is described as being around Augsburg rather than at a named site within it. The date of 1902 belongs to the work itself. It should be kept distinct from any later catalogue or documentation date attached to the file record that transmits these details, which says nothing about when or by whom the painting was made. The present account has access to the catalogue-level information for the work and not to the full museum catalogue entry, so the attribution, title and date are reported as the catalogue gives them rather than independently verified here.(Wikimedia Commons: Spring, Vicinity of Augsburg, n.d.)

The same catalogue describes the work as a landscape painting, executed in oil on board, measuring 23.8 by 33 centimetres. The medium and support place the picture among small-format panel paintings rather than large canvas work: oil on board is a support that favours portable, intimately scaled images, and the recorded dimensions confirm that scale, with the horizontal side the longer of the two. The generic description "landscape" situates the image within that category of painting, while the specific title identifies the subject as spring in the countryside near Augsburg. Together these are the basic physical and categorical facts on which any further study of the object depends.(Wikimedia Commons: Spring, Vicinity of Augsburg, n.d.)

The painting is titled Spring, around Augsburg and is by Wassily Kandinsky, dated 1902.(Wikimedia Commons: Spring, Vicinity of Augsburg, n.d.)

The work is a landscape painting, executed in oil on board, with dimensions of 23.8 by 33 centimetres.(Wikimedia Commons: Spring, Vicinity of Augsburg, n.d.)

The object and its recorded particulars

Visual observation

The painting recorded as Spring, Vicinity of Augsburg is attributed to Wassily Kandinsky and dated 1902; it is described as oil on board measuring 23.8 by 33 centimetres and is held in the Musée National d'Art Moderne, Centre national d'art et de culture Georges-Pompidou, Paris, under accession number AM 81-65-11. These particulars of title, artist, date, medium, dimensions and collection establish the object described here, but they do not by themselves document how the landscape is composed. The visual account below is therefore kept distinct from those cataloguing facts: what follows describes the arrangement visible in the work, while the attribution, date, medium and accession details are matters recorded in the collection description.(Wikimedia Commons: Spring, Vicinity of Augsburg, n.d.)

Blossom, structure and balance

At the centre-left of the composition sits a dense, brushed mass of white and pale pink blossoms interspersed with dark orchard branches. This mass carries the painting's spring subject, and its placement gives the flowering a dominant position rather than dispersing it as scattered detail. The blossoms are described as brushed, which indicates visible handling of paint in the flowering rather than a smooth, uniform surface. The contrast between the pale blossom and the dark branches is itself part of the subject: the flowering is legible precisely because the darker woodwork shows through it. Nothing in the evidence identifies particular species, so the orchard is described by its role in the composition rather than by botanical identification.(Wikimedia Commons: Spring, Vicinity of Augsburg, n.d.)

Above the flowering, a dark, low-pitched farmhouse roof with deep eaves spans the upper register of the painting. The roof establishes the rural setting and caps the scene. Its low pitch and broad eaves give the upper part of the composition a horizontal, sheltering form, and the darkness of the roof answers the dark branches within the blossom mass below. Read with the flowering, the roof frames the orchard as part of a built, inhabited place rather than as open countryside; the evidence describes this as establishing the rural setting rather than as an explicit depiction of a working farm, so the building's function is inferred from its form, not stated.(Wikimedia Commons: Spring, Vicinity of Augsburg, n.d.)

A long horizontal wall closes the middle ground, running across the picture and dividing the blossoming yard from the open foreground. The wall performs a compositional function as well as a descriptive one: it provides a firm horizontal boundary between the flowering area and the nearer space, and it separates what is enclosed from what is open. Together with the roof above, the wall frames the orchard between a built upper edge and a built middle edge. The evidence does not specify the wall's material, height or state of repair, so it is described only by its extent and position.(Wikimedia Commons: Spring, Vicinity of Augsburg, n.d.)

At the right, a dark green garden border containing a rounded shrub and low plantings balances the pale blossoming orchard. This border answers the light flowering across the width of the composition: the pale mass sits centre-left, the dark green growth sits to the right, and the two hold the picture in balance. The border also introduces a second kind of cultivated growth, distinct from the orchard, so that the rural setting is described through at least two planted areas, one flowering and one green. The evidence records the border's colour as dark green and its forms as a rounded shrub with low plantings, without naming the plants.(Wikimedia Commons: Spring, Vicinity of Augsburg, n.d.)

Interpretation

Taken together, the four described elements form a legible rural arrangement: blossom at centre-left, a farmhouse roof across the top, a wall across the middle, and a green border at the right. The composition can be read as growth contained within a bounded property, since the flowering yard is closed by the wall in front and the roof above. That reading is an interpretation of the described arrangement rather than a statement in the source: the evidence establishes the wall's dividing role and the roof's framing position, and the sense of a tended, enclosed yard follows from how those elements relate. What the composition does not support from the evidence is a claim about wild or unmanaged nature, since every described element, the orchard, the building, the wall and the border, belongs to a cultivated setting.(Wikimedia Commons: Spring, Vicinity of Augsburg, n.d.)

The imagery of spring flowering near Augsburg is what ties the composition to its title, and the arrangement of pale blossom against dark branches, roof and border is what makes that season visible. The painting matters within a larger account of landscape as a record of a particular place and season rendered through simple compositional parts: a flowering mass, a building, a boundary and a planted border. The evidence describes these elements and their balance but does not document the painting's relationship to other works, its exhibition history or its critical reception, so its place in a history of landscape painting can be stated only in these terms, without claiming influences or successors that the evidence does not establish.(Wikimedia Commons: Spring, Vicinity of Augsburg, n.d.)

Visual observation

A dense, brushed mass of white and pale pink blossoms with dark orchard branches occupies the center-left of the composition, carrying the painting's spring subject.(Wikimedia Commons: Spring, Vicinity of Augsburg, n.d.)

A dark, low-pitched farmhouse roof with deep eaves spans the upper register, establishing the rural setting.(Wikimedia Commons: Spring, Vicinity of Augsburg, n.d.)

A long horizontal wall closes the middle ground, dividing the blossoming yard from the open foreground.(Wikimedia Commons: Spring, Vicinity of Augsburg, n.d.)

A dark green garden border with a rounded shrub and low plantings balances the pale blossoming orchard at the right.(Wikimedia Commons: Spring, Vicinity of Augsburg, n.d.)

Institutional Record

Wassily Kandinsky's Spring, around Augsburg is held in the collection of the Musée National d'Art Moderne, Centre national d'art et de culture Georges-Pompidou, Paris, under accession number AM 81-65-11. The painting is dated 1902, a small landscape executed in oil on board measuring 23.8 by 33 centimetres. These details establish the work as a modestly scaled early landscape on a portable support, and the Paris museum records fix the object's present institutional location and inventory identity rather than any earlier provenance, which the supplied evidence does not document.(Wikimedia Commons: Spring, Vicinity of Augsburg, n.d.)

Composition and Subject

Interpretation

The subject is a rural place near Augsburg in spring, rendered through a small set of clearly legible parts. A dense, brushed mass of white and pale pink blossoms threaded with dark orchard branches occupies the centre-left of the composition and carries the painting's spring subject. Above it, a dark, low-pitched farmhouse roof with deep eaves spans the upper register, anchoring the orchard in a working rural setting rather than an open field. A long horizontal wall closes the middle ground, dividing the blossoming yard from the open foreground, while a dark green garden border with a rounded shrub and low plantings on the right answers the pale orchard mass and holds the composition in balance. In this reading, the wall and roof give the growth a bounded, tended character: spring as flowering inside a cultivated rural property rather than as wild nature.(Wikimedia Commons: Spring, Vicinity of Augsburg, n.d.)

The painting is in the collection of the Musée National d'Art Moderne, Centre national d'art et de culture Georges-Pompidou, Paris, with accession number AM 81-65-11.(Wikimedia Commons: Spring, Vicinity of Augsburg, n.d.)

Object and documented holding

Interpretation

The object under consideration is Wassily Kandinsky's painting titled Spring, around Augsburg, dated 1902. It is a landscape executed in oil on board, measuring 23.8 by 33 centimetres. The painting belongs to the collection of the Musée National d'Art Moderne, Centre national d'art et de culture Georges-Pompidou, Paris, and carries the accession number AM 81-65-11.(Wikimedia Commons: Spring, Vicinity of Augsburg, n.d.)

The recorded working insurance estimate for this painting is a broad range of US$400K to US$1.5M. The recorded date identifies it as a working calculation generated on 2026-10-30. Because the calculated range is the only value figure in the supplied evidence, and is explicitly a model-generated figure rather than an official appraisal, auction estimate, result, sale price, or any reflection of an actual policy, private valuation or transaction, it should be cited with these limits intact.(Wikimedia Commons: Spring, Vicinity of Augsburg, n.d.)

Basis and limits of the working estimate

The methodology behind that figure is stated in the record: a broad, conservative range prepared for manual review, derived from the confirmed artwork context of an early 1902 oil-on-board landscape by a major modern artist. The modest scale of 23.8 by 33 cm and the board support are given as factors that generally moderate value compared with larger oils on canvas. The record also notes that the work is held by the Musée National d'Art Moderne, Paris, that the confirmed accession number indicates an institutional holding, and that it affects any hypothetical insurance or valuation context. The record states that no public auction records, official appraisals or private insurance data were used, that no comparable sales were independently verified, and that the range is broad and conservative by design to account for uncertainty in attribution, condition and market context. The record directs users to consult qualified appraisers and insurers for any formal valuation.(Wikimedia Commons: Spring, Vicinity of Augsburg, n.d.)

Working estimate

Calculated working insurance estimate, not a sale price: Estimated value: US$400K to US$1.5M Recorded date: Working calculation, generated 2026-10-30. Methodology: This is a broad, conservative working range prepared for manual review. It is derived from the confirmed artwork context: an early (1902) oil-on-board landscape by Wassily Kandinsky, a major modern artist. The modest scale (23.8 by 33 cm) and board support are factors that generally moderate value compared with larger oils on canvas. The work is held by the Musée National d'Art Moderne, Paris, and the confirmed accession number indicates it is an institutional holding, which affects any hypothetical insurance or valuation context. No public auction records, official appraisals, or private insurance data were used. The range reflects a cautious estimate for an early Kandinsky landscape of this size and medium, with a broad spread to account for uncertainty in attribution, condition, and market context. It is not a precise appraisal. 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. It does not reflect any actual policy, private valuation, or transaction. No comparable sales were independently verified, and the figures are broad and conservative by design. Users should consult qualified appraisers and insurers for any formal valuation.(Wikimedia Commons: Spring, Vicinity of Augsburg, n.d.)