Artists and a Bavarian king: They had blue in common

By Detlef Berg Jun 14, 2011, 3:06 GMT

Munich - For the German city of Munich and the Upper Bavaria region, just colour the year 2011 blue.

The festivities are devoted to two completely different anniversary dates. In the one, the 100th anniversary date of the artists' movement called the 'Der Blaue Reiter' (The Blue Rider) is being celebrated. In the other, Bavaria is marking the 125th anniversary of the death of King Ludwig II - whose favourite colour was blue.

Numerous events are now inviting visitors to explore more deeply the story of the fairytale king and of the artists of the Blaue Reiter group.

It was in early August, 1908, that the painters Wassily Kandinsky and Gabriele Muenter discovered the town of Murnau on Staffelsee Lake during an outing south of Munich.

Perhaps it was one of those days of clean, clear air when the silhouettes of the Bavarian Alps are so distinctly reflected in the waters of the bogs in the alpine foothills, when the colours so clearly and profoundly dominate the earth's surface.

In the town of Murnau itself, the market squares with their colourful buildings along the main street so thrilled the couple that they decided to settle there.

Today, their house is a museum. And it was in the so-called 'Russenvilla' (Russians' villa) that in 1911 the artists' group Der Blaue Reiter came into being.

A visit to the Muenter house provides a vivid impression of the atmosphere which reigned here during its heyday in the years before World War I (1914-1918).

The view through the windows recalls motifs which today hang on the walls of museums around the world: the palace and the church, the steeple of which gets more and more slanted with each new painting.

Simply the nickname itself - 'Russians' villa' - gives one an idea about how alien the house and its residents must have been regarded by Murnau's people back then.

It was here that the creme de la creme of the Expressionist movement met: Alexei von Yavlensky, Marianne von Werefkin, August Macke, and Franz Marc. And it was here that the artists group Der Blaue Reiter came into being.

'We invented the name at the coffee table in the garden cabin in Sindelsdorf,' Kandinsky later recalled. 'We both loved the colour blue. Marc liked horses, I liked the riders, and so the name simply came into being all on its own.'

An excursion to nearby Kochel is well worthwhile. The small town on the shores of Walchensee lake can boast a jewel in the Franz Marc Museum. It was expanded on with an extension in 2008 and is home to a top-flight collection of paintings.

Besides artworks of the Blaue Reiter group there are above all paintings of the so-called 'Bruecke' (bridge) Expressionists and of Paul Klee.

In Munich, the Lenbachhaus museum possesses a unique collection of works of the Blaue Reiter group thanks to a donation by Gabriele Muenter. Renovation work on the building are underway and to be completed in 2013.

Bavarian King Ludwig II still revered by Bavarians to this day, often visited Murnau. Mostly he made a stopover when he was heading from Munich to his favourite castle, Linderhof.

The king and his famous castles are intertwined in history and peoples' memories. Linderhof was the only castle that he completed construction on and actually would reside in, visitors are told as they take a tour through the splendid castle embedded amid an ornate, landscaped garden.

But it was another site which had him enthralled.

'This place is one of the most beautiful ones you'll ever find,' Ludwig wrote to his friend, the opera composer Richard Wagner. 'My castle will be the uniquest one anywhere in the world, famous far beyond the seas.'

Ludwig was referring to his fairytale castle Neuschwanstein, work on which began in 1868 on a site amid jagged mountain cliffs. Neuschwanstein would become his most famous castle, and it was his last refuge before Bavarian state authorities had him declared insane and put him in custody.

It was from Neuschwanstein that Ludwig was taken on June 12, 1886 to the Schloss Berg castle on Lake Starnberg, where he died under mysterious circumstances a day later.