Odessa. Port

Wassily Kandinsky composed this Odessa Port in 1898, one of his earliest surviving works. The oil on canvas shows the harbor of the Ukrainian port city where he'd attended gymnasium as a child (1876-1885). Ships and buildings are still clearly recognizable, rendered in an Impressionist style far from the abstract paintings he would later become famous for.

This landscape is "infinitely far from the Kandinsky familiar to everyone." Another thirteen years would pass before his first abstract canvas. Yet even here, the movement toward abstraction begins. Visible objects remain distinguishable, but their accurate reproduction matters less than capturing light effects. The loose brushwork follows Impressionist principles.

Kandinsky first exhibited his work in Odessa at the Society of South Russian Artists. The city remained important throughout his life. This early coastal scene hangs at the Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow, offering a glimpse of an abstract pioneer's representational beginnings.