Wassily Kandinsky – Composition V

Composition V is an abstract painting by Wassily Kandinsky: a large landscape canvas cut across its whole width by a single thick black stroke, with olive green, ochre and cream shapes gathering around it. The work belongs to his series of Compositions, the highest of the three kinds of painting he described in Concerning the Spiritual in Art. We make it as a hand-painted reproduction in oil on canvas, in eight sizes or to your measurements, and before dispatch you receive a photograph of the finished painting to approve.

What we deliberately do not state here

This canvas is not held by any public collection that has catalogued it, so there is no published object record, no measured dimensions and no inventory number. That is why you will not find a year of execution, a collection name or an accession number on this page. We say what can be checked against an institution, and nothing else.

Composition V – Wassily Kandinsky

Is there anything recognisable in it?

Not in the sense of a scene you could name. The canvas carries patches of colour, thin black lines and one powerful stroke winding across the upper half, and nowhere a horizon, a figure or an object the eye knows at once. A few shapes come close to a hint – along the left edge a dark arc opens into something like an open shell, and at the upper right small red and orange marks gather into a group that reads as a crowd – but none of those likenesses appears in any institution record, so we give them here as what they are: a viewer’s impression, not the meaning of the work. What is actually on the canvas is the relation between the large black stroke, the heavy olive masses and the pale lower half.

What is on the canvas?

The canvas is landscape and wide. The strongest element is the thick black stroke that starts at the left edge, falls in a broad arc towards the middle and then climbs to the upper right corner; it works like a rope holding the whole arrangement together. Below and to its left lie olive green and dark grey masses with white and cream shapes pushing in between them. The upper right is the most colourful part: red, orange and yellow marks, and among them small blue and white forms overlapping into a dense group. The lower half is pale – sand, cream and faint blue – and thin black lines wander across it, closing here and there into small figures. Along the bottom edge sit darker blue-green and brown patches. No shape is closed by a sharp contour; the colours run into one another, so the whole surface seems to move slowly from left to right.

Why does this painting matter?

The name says where the painter himself placed it. Kandinsky divided his work of that period into three kinds, and the Composition is the most demanding of them: a work made slowly, checked by reason and intention, and not the result of a single inspiration. Composition V is the fifth of that series, so it comes from the time when he was deliberately leaving the recognisable object behind and building the work out of relations of colour and form. That is why this is one of the canvases where you can see what abstraction means in his sense of the word: not a work without content, but one whose content is the relation itself. We say no more about its history, because no institution has catalogued it and there is nothing else that could be checked.

What does the painting mean?

Kandinsky wrote about his own work, and the only thing we offer here as meaning is his own words. In Concerning the Spiritual in Art (1911) Kandinsky sets down that colour is a means of acting directly on the soul: colour is the keyboard, the eye the hammer, the soul a piano with many strings. A Composition is therefore not a depiction but a chord, built as deliberately as a composer builds a movement. What this canvas is supposed to represent we do not claim: without a published institution record any reading would be our invention, and we do not do that on this page. What remains is what you can see for yourself – the large black stroke holding the work together, and the pale lower half that gives it air.

Why is it called Composition V?

Kandinsky sorted his work into three kinds and described them in Concerning the Spiritual in Art. An Impression is a direct impression of outward nature in purely artistic form. An Improvisation is the largely unconscious, spontaneous expression of inner processes. A Composition expresses a slowly formed inner feeling that comes to utterance only after long maturing, checked by reason and intention. The number V marks the fifth work in that series. The next two large canvases of the same series are Composition VI and Composition VII, both in public collections, which is why we can say considerably more about them. Our range also holds Composition IV and Composition X.

How is our hand-painted version made?

This is a canvas painting made with a brush and oil paint, not with a printer. The painter works from a high-resolution image and builds the surface in layers: first the pale lower half and the sand ground, then the olive and grey masses, and last the great black stroke, which has to be drawn in one pass or it loses its tension. In an abstract work it is the relation between the colours that holds everything together, so we leave nothing to chance: a Kandinsky reproduction painted in oil keeps those relations for years, because paint does not fade the way a print does. We have no studio photographs of our own for this work yet, so you will not find any on this page – when the next copy is painted we photograph it and the shots come here. Before dispatch every customer receives a photograph of their own finished canvas to approve, so you know what leaves our easel. Because everything is done by hand, every hand-painted copy is unique and no two are quite the same.

Which size for which wall?

If you are unsure: 150 x 100 cm. 150 x 100 cm is the natural painting for the living room above a sofa, while 120 x 80 cm suits a narrower wall or a bedroom. The smaller 70 x 50 and 90 x 60 cm sizes sit above a chest of drawers, a desk or in a hallway. The larger 190 x 130, 220 x 150 and 250 x 170 cm are for open-plan rooms, dining rooms and offices, and the largest at 275 x 190 cm is for really large walls, foyers and stairwells. Because the work is dense and full of movement, it needs some empty wall around it: the great black stroke only tells when the painting has room.

Custom size, stretcher and frame

If none of the eight sizes fits your wall, we paint the work to your measurements; that is our made-to-measure painting. Like all our paintings on canvas, this copy arrives stretched on a wooden stretcher, ready to hang. For the frame, use our 3D app: it shows every one of our frame profiles on this motif, so you can compare gold, silver, black, white and natural wood before deciding – the app is only for choosing the frame. If you want to see how the work will look on your own wall, that is our separate room-visualisation service.

Delivery and guarantee

Every copy is made to order in our studio in Slovenia, so allow 15 to 45 days depending on the size. We ship it stretched and protected for transport, framed if you chose one, across the EU with no customs. Before dispatch you receive a photograph of the finished work to approve, and every order is covered by our returns policy. You will find the whole range in our Wassily Kandinsky gallery, and our article on Wassily Kandinsky tells the story of his life.

Frequently asked questions

Where is the original?

We cannot confirm that: the canvas is not held by any public collection that has catalogued it, so we claim nothing about where it is.

What does the painting show?

Nothing figurative: a large black stroke across the upper half, olive and grey masses around it and a pale, sand-coloured lower half.

Is Komposition V the same work?

Yes. Composition V, Komposition V and Композиция V are titles of the same canvas.

Is this a print?

No. It is an oil painting reproduction made by hand on canvas; you can see and feel the brushstrokes.

Which size should I choose?

For a living room, 150 x 100 cm; for really large walls 275 x 190 cm, and the size guide above covers the rest.

Can I have a size that is not listed?

Yes, we paint to measure and keep the proportions of the motif.

How is it delivered?

Stretched on a stretcher, and framed if you chose a frame, within 15 to 45 days of your approving the photograph of the finished work.

What is the painting about, in one sentence?

A relation: one great stroke holding a dense group of colours, and a pale field that lets them breathe.

Is the original for sale, and what is it worth?

We do not know and we do not guess. With no collection having catalogued the work, there is nothing about its value or availability that could be checked.

How high should I hang it?

The centre of the work at eye level, about 145–150 cm from the floor; above a sofa, 15–25 cm above the backrest.

Does it work as a gift?

Yes, for someone who loves modern art it is a well-judged choice. If you would rather let them choose, there is a gift voucher.

• Subject: an abstract arrangement around a single great black stroke
• Original: not catalogued by any public collection – so no year, no collection and no accession number
• Ours: hand-painted oil on canvas, eight sizes from 70 x 50 to 275 x 190 cm, stretched and framed on request
• Worth knowing: a Composition is for Kandinsky the highest of the three kinds he set out in Concerning the Spiritual in Art