Christie's 20th/21st Century: London Evening Sale on October 14, 2026 will be highlighted by a Kandinsky masterpiece that is poised to set a new auction record. The story of the painting begins in Paris in 1906 when Wassily Kandinsky and his partner Gabriele Münter moved to the French capital. They immersed themselves in the city's art scene and were inspired by the avant-garde movements, from Pointillism to Fauvism. The following year, these influences led Kandinsky to place the largest canvas of his career on his easel and begin work on the 5x5 foot painting Das bunte leben (which translates from the German to The Colorful Life). He combined elements of modern painting with the folklore of his Russian homeland in a complex and harmonious mosaic of colors and figures.
Keith Gill, the Vice Chairman of 20/21 at Christie's, explains, "Das bunte leben is not just a turning point in Kandinsky's oeuvre, but also one of the great turning points in the story of modern painting. Kandinsky is no longer simply depicting the world around him, but beginning to imagine how painting might communicate something beyond the visible. Color assumes an unprecedented expressive intensity, while the figures and landscape become part of a larger vision of human experience."
Completed in 1907, the painting was presented that year at the Salon d'Automne in Paris where it received praise from critics.
Kandinsky sold this work around 1919 or 1920 to the Dutch art dealer Paul Citroen, who in turn sold it in 1927 to the industrialist couple Emanuel and Hedwig Lewenstein in Amsterdam. Emanuel Lewenstein died in 1930, and his widow Hedwig also passed away in 1937. The painting, which had been on loan to Amsterdam's Stedelijk Museum, passed into the possession of their children, Robert and Wilhelmine. The siblings left the Netherlands during the German occupation, and The Colorful Life was auctioned in 1940 when only Robert's wife, Irma, was still living in Amsterdam. The central issue in the restitution claim, which began in 2015, was whether the consignment to auction had been voluntary or coerced. The case was concluded in 2023, with the result that the painting, which by then was in the possession of the German bank BayernLB and on display at Munich's Lenbachhaus museum, was returned to the Lewenstein heirs.
See also: Early Major Work by Kandinsky Identified as Looted Art
The story of The Colorful Life continues when it goes up for auction at Christie's in London on October 14. An official estimate has not yet been given, but it is expected to exceed $30 million. In fact, a new auction record for a Kandinsky painting is possible. The current record was set in 2023 when the also restituted painting Murnau with Church II (1910) was sold at Sotheby's London for £37.1 million (about $45 million).
See also: A Restituted Painting Sets New Record for Kandinsky
"Kandinsky’s Das bunte Leben is far more than an early masterpiece: it captures a moment when various influences in the artist’s work converged and foreshadows the radical step towards abstraction that was to follow," said Marc Porter, the chairman of Christie's America, in a press release. "We are honored to present this seminal, museum-quality painting in our upcoming 20/21 Marquee Week in London. The restitution of Das bunte Leben to the heirs of Hedwig Lewenstein-Weyermann after more than fifty years as a long-term loan to the Lenbachhaus in Munich represents a significant milestone in the painting’s history. Its return to the market marks the beginning of a new chapter for a work that occupies such a prominent place in modern art."
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