Oil paint on canvas
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<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/wassily-kandinsky-1382" aria-label="More by Wassily Kandinsky" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">Wassily Kandinsky</a>
Cossacks
Presented by Mrs Hazel McKinley 1938
abstraction
actions: expressive
adults
animals: birds
animals: mammals
architecture
army
bird - non-specific
castle
colour
Cossack
dress: nations/regions
fighting
figure
from recognisable sources
groups
gun, rifle
hill
horse
irregular forms
lance
landscape
landscape
literature and fiction
man
military
military
natural phenomena
non-representational
objects
people
rainbow
riding
Russian folklore
society
soldier
sword
tales, legends and traditional
transport: land
weapons
work and occupations
<p>WHAT EMOTION DO YOU FEEL WHEN YOU THINK OF A COLOUR?</p><p>The ‘cossacks’ of the title are Russian cavalrymen which you can just recognise from their orange hats at the top and right of the painting. However Wassily Kandinsky believed paintings did not need to represent the real world. He felt that emotions could be expressed through the way colours and lines were arranged in a painting. He linked musical tones to particular colours, and considered colour to have a powerful spiritual impact. Can you hear music when you look at the painting??</p><p>‘The first colours which made a strong impression on me were light juice green, white, crimson red, black and yellow ochre. These memories go back to the third year of my life.’</p><p><span>Start Gallery caption, 2016</span></p><p><em>Gallery label, July 2017</em></p>
painting oil paint canvas
12 May 2000 – 12 May 2002
2002-05-12
12 May 2000 – 12 May 2002
2002-05-12
2000-05-12
Tate Modern (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/modern/
2000-05-12
Manifestos
Collection based display
23 March 2005 – 5 June 2005
2005-06-05
23 March 2005 – 5 June 2005
2005-06-05
2005-03-23
Compton Verney (Compton Verney, UK)
2005-03-23
Only Make Believe
Loan-out
19 June 2006 – 4 February 2007
2007-02-04
19 June 2006 – 1 October 2006
2006-10-01
2006-06-19
Tate Modern (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/modern/
21 October 2006 – 4 February 2007
2007-02-04
2006-10-21
Kunstmuseum Basel (Basel, Switzerland)
http://www.kunstmuseumbasel.ch
2006-06-19
Kandinsky: The Path to Abstraction 1908-1922
Exhibition
21 October 2006 – 4 February 2007
2007-02-04
21 October 2006 – 4 February 2007
2007-02-04
2006-10-21
Kunstmuseum Basel (Basel, Switzerland)
http://www.kunstmuseumbasel.ch
2006-10-21
Kandinsky: The Path to Abstraction 1908-1922
Loan-out
30 June 2007 – 17 September 2007
2007-09-17
30 June 2007 – 17 September 2007
2007-09-17
2007-06-30
Pallant House Gallery (Chichester, UK)
2 October 2007 – 9 December 2007
2007-12-09
2007-10-02
Sainsbury Centre for the Visual Arts (Norwich, UK)
2007-06-30
Eye-Music: The Relationship between Abstract Art and Music from Kandinsky to Mondrian
Loan-out
6 September 2009 – 22 November 2009
2009-11-22
6 September 2009 – 22 November 2009
2009-11-22
2009-09-06
Kunstsammlung im Stadtmuseum (Jena, Germany)
2009-09-06
Kandinsky
Loan-out
31 October 2010 – 27 February 2011
2011-02-27
31 October 2010 – 27 February 2011
2011-02-27
2010-10-31
Museum Wiesbaden (Wiesbaden, Germany)
2010-10-31
The Spiritual in Art - From the Blue Rider to the Abstract Expressionism
Loan-out
1 March 2011 – 30 May 2011
2011-05-30
1 March 2011 – 30 May 2011
2011-05-30
2011-03-01
National Gallery (Prague, Czech Republic)
2011-03-01
Reciprocal Gauguin
Loan-out
24 February 2012 – 17 February 2013
2013-02-17
24 February 2012 – 3 June 2012
2012-06-03
2012-02-24
Van Gogh Museum (Amsterdam, Netherlands)
http://www.vangoghmuseum.nl/
7 July 2012 – 7 October 2012
2012-10-07
2012-07-07
National Galleries of Scotland (Edinburgh, UK)
16 November 2012 – 17 February 2013
2013-02-17
2012-11-16
Ateneum Art Museum (Helsinki, Finland)
2012-02-24
Van Gogh to Kandinsky. Symbolist Landscape in Europe 1880 - 1910
Loan-out
17 May 2014 – 25 January 2015
2015-01-25
17 May 2014 – 28 September 2014
2014-09-28
2014-05-17
Tate St Ives (St Ives, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/stives/
24 October 2014 – 25 January 2015
2015-01-25
2014-10-24
Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art (Middlesbrough, UK)
http://www.visitmima.com/
2014-05-17
International Exchanges: St Ives and Modern Art, 1915 - 1965
Exhibition
17 May 2014 – 31 January 2015
2015-01-31
1 October 2014 – 31 January 2015
2015-01-31
2014-10-01
Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art (Middlesbrough, UK)
http://www.visitmima.com/
2014-05-17
International Exchanges: St Ives and Modern Art, 1915 - 1965
Loan-out
12 October 2018 – 4 October 2020
2020-10-04
12 October 2018 – 4 October 2020
2020-10-04
2018-10-12
Tate Liverpool (Liverpool, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/liverpool/
2018-10-12
Wassily Kandinsky
Collection based display
1 March 2023 – 30 June 2023
2023-06-30
1 March 2023 – 30 June 2023
2023-06-30
2023-03-01
Kunsthaus Zürich (Zürich, Switzerland)
http://www.kunsthaus.ch/
2023-03-01
Re-Orientations. Europe and Islamic art, from 1851 to today
Loan-out
25 April 2024 – 20 October 2024
2024-10-20
25 April 2024 – 20 October 2024
2024-10-20
2024-04-25
Tate Modern (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/modern/
2024-04-25
Expressionists: Kandinsky, Münter & The Blue Rider
Exhibition
11 April 2026 – 14 March 2027
2027-03-14
11 April 2026 – 19 October 2026
2026-10-19
2026-04-11
Peggy Guggenheim Collection (Venice, Italy)
http://www.guggenheim-venice.it/
21 November 2026 – 14 March 2027
2027-03-14
2026-11-21
Royal Academy of Arts (London, UK)
http://www.royalacademy.org.uk
2026-04-11
Peggy Guggenheim in London: The Story of Guggenheim Jeune, 1938-39
Loan-out
Cossacks
support: 946 × 1302 mm
frame: 1118 × 1477 × 74 mm
Presented by Mrs Hazel McKinley 1938
<div class="text">
<p>WHAT EMOTION DO YOU FEEL WHEN YOU THINK OF A COLOUR?</p>
<p>The ‘cossacks’ of the title are Russian cavalrymen which you can just recognise from their orange hats at the top and right of the painting. However Wassily Kandinsky believed paintings did not need to represent the real world. He felt that emotions could be expressed through the way colours and lines were arranged in a painting. He linked musical tones to particular colours, and considered colour to have a powerful spiritual impact. Can you hear music when you look at the painting??</p>
<p>‘The first colours which made a strong impression on me were light juice green, white, crimson red, black and yellow ochre. These memories go back to the third year of my life.’</p>
<p>
<i>Start Gallery caption, 2016</i>
</p>
</div>

Display caption
2017-07-24T00:00:00
display-caption
DISPLAY_CAPTION
<p><b>Wassily Kandinsky</b><span> 1866-1944 </span>
<br/></p>
<p><span><a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/kandinsky-cossacks-n04948" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N04948</span></a> </span><b>Cossacks</b><span>
1910-11 </span>
<br/></p>
<p><span>Inscribed 'Kandinsky 1910' b.r. and, on stretcher, 'KANDINSKY-Zu Komposition 4 (Fragment) 1910' and 'No.119 | 130 x 94'</span><br/><span>Oil on canvas, 37 1/4 x 51 1/4 (94.5 x 130)</span>
<br/><span>Presented by Mrs Hazel McKinley 1938</span>
<br/><i>Prov:</i><span>
Mrs Hazel McKinley, London (purchased from the artist through Guggenheim-Jeune, London, 1938)</span>
<br/><i>Exh:</i><span>
</span><i>Kandinsky</i><span>, Kunsthaus Schaller, Stuttgart, 1928 (no catalogue); </span><i>20th Century German Art</i><span>, New Burlington Galleries, London, July 1938 (211, ex catalogue) as 'Cosaques' 1911; </span><i>The Blue Rider Group</i><span>, RSA, Edinburgh, August-September 1960 (60) as 'Study for Composition IV' 1911; Tate Gallery, September-October 1960 (60)</span>
<br/><i>Lit:</i><span>
Kandinsky, 'Komposition 4: nachträgliches Definieren' in </span><i>Kandinsky 1910-1913</i><span> (Sturm-Album, Berlin 1913), pp.23-4; Kenneth Lindsay, 'The Genesis and Meaning of the Cover Design for the First </span><i>Blaue Reiter</i><span> Exhibition Catalogue' in </span><i>Art Bulletin</i><span>, XXXV, 1953, pp.48-9, repr. facing p.48, fig.7; Will Grohmann, </span><i>Wassily Kandinsky: Life and Work</i><span> (London 1959), No.119, pp.121-3 and 331, repr. p.353, pl.52; Paul Overy, </span><i>Kandinsky: the Language of the Eye</i><span>
(London 1969), pp.62-3, repr. pl.15 in colour</span>
<br/><i>Repr: The Tate Gallery</i><span>
(London 1969), p.125 in colour </span>
<br/></p>
<p><span>This picture is related to the left-hand section of the much larger '<a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/c/composition" title="Glossary definition for 'Composition'"><span>Composition</span></a> 4' now in the Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen at Düsseldorf, which measures 159.5 x 250.5cm. It appears as No.119 in Kandinsky's house catalogue, where it is dated 13 January 1911, which conflicts with the date 1910 on the picture itself: presumably it was either finished in 1911 or painted at the end of 1910 and not entered in the catalogue until a few weeks later. ('Composition 4' is No.125 in the house catalogue and the five intervening numbers refer to completely different compositions). </span>
<br/></p>
<p><span>Both pictures are '<a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/o/objective-abstraction" title="Glossary definition for 'Objective Abstraction'"><span>objective abstractions</span></a>' in which an expressive arrangement of colours and lines is of primary importance, but a certain <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/r/representational" title="Glossary definition for 'Representational'"><span>representational</span></a> element still remains. In the Tate's <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/painting" title="Glossary definition for 'Painting'"><span>painting</span></a> one can identify: top left, two Cossacks on horseback fighting with sabres; bottom right, three more Cossacks, two of whom hold lances; top right, a castle on a hill and a party of birds in flight. All these features except the birds are also present in 'Composition 4' but are compressed sideways in order to fit almost exactly into the left-hand half of the composition, with the right-hand lance forming a vertical division down the centre. The right-hand part includes several additional themes, particularly two lying figures which introduce a diagonal movement to the right. Kandinsky wrote a retrospective analysis of 'Composition 4' in March 1911 (first published in the Sturm-Album of 1913) which describes it both in <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/a/abstract-art" title="Glossary definition for 'Abstract art'"><span>abstract</span></a> terms (effects produced purely by different colours and forms) and in terms of specific objects (horses, figures, the castle and so on); this analysis also applies to some extent to the present work. </span>
<br/></p>
<p><span>Will Grohmann referred to the Tate's picture as an oil study for 'Composition 4', but the five preliminary <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/d/drawing" title="Glossary definition for 'Drawing'"><span>drawings</span></a> which are known for the larger picture, a <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/c/charcoal" title="Glossary definition for 'Charcoal'"><span>charcoal</span></a> drawing, two brush drawings and two <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/w/watercolour" title="Glossary definition for 'Watercolour'"><span>watercolours</span></a>, are all studies for the complete composition, including the right-hand section, and therefore do not really bridge the gap between them. In Kandinsky's hand list 2 the picture is listed in Russian as 'Fragment Kompozitsiyi 4 (13.1.)' - that is to say 'Fragment of Composition 4 (13.1.)' - but in his hand list 3 written by Gabriele Münter (which appears to be a draft for hand list 2 written by Kandinsky himself), it appears as: </span>
<br/></p>
<p><span>119. Improvisation 17 (Schlacht) 13.1.</span>
<br/></p>
<blockquote><span>Zu Komp. 4 (Fragment) Fragment zu Comp. 4 </span>
<br/></blockquote>
<p>
<br/><span>(The first part of the title, 'Improvisation 17', was afterwards crossed out by Münter). The fact that Gabriele Münter or Kandinsky, or both, originally thought of calling the picture 'Improvisation 17' may be an indication that Kandinsky painted it as an end in itself, and not a study, and that he only decided later on to extend the composition or to use some of the same motifs again in a larger work. 'Schlacht' (Battle) is the subtitle both of this picture and of 'Composition 4'. Although there are paintings entitled 'Improvisation 16' (dated 1910) and 'Improvisation 18' (dated 1911), there appears to be no other work known as 'Improvisation 17'. </span>
<br/></p>
<p><span>Hans Konrad Roethel, who has provided much helpful information about this picture, has drawn attention to a letter by Kandinsky to Galka Scheyer of 13 January 1939 (now in the Norton Simon Museum at Pasadena) commenting on its acquisition by the Tate: </span>
<br/></p>
<p><span>'An American woman living in London has bought a pre-war painting from me and presented it to the Tate Gallery in London! It is the first truly modern painting in the famous museum in London. The painting is called "Cosaques", dates from the year 1911, still bears traces of "the object", but makes nevertheless a wholly "concrete" impression.' </span>
<br/></p>
<p><span>Thus the painting has been variously known as 'Cossacks', 'Improvisation 17', 'Battle', 'Fragment for Composition 4' and 'Composition 4 (Fragment)'. The title 'Cossacks' has been adopted here because it is the one Kandinsky seems to have preferred at the time of its acquisition. </span>
<br/></p>
<p><b>Published in:</b>
<br/><span>Ronald Alley, </span><i>Catalogue of the Tate Gallery's Collection of Modern Art other than Works by British Artists</i><span>, Tate Gallery and Sotheby Parke-Bernet, London 1981, pp.380-1, reproduced p.380</span>
<br/></p>

Catalogue entry
2004-09-15T00:00:00
catalogue-entry
CATALOGUE_ENTRY
abstraction actions: expressive adults animals: birds animals: mammals architecture army bird - non-specific castle colour Cossack dress: nations/regions fighting figure from recognisable sources groups gun, rifle hill horse irregular forms lance landscape landscape literature and fiction man military military natural phenomena non-representational objects people rainbow riding Russian folklore society soldier sword tales, legends and traditional transport: land weapons work and occupations