During her time in Zürich in 1915, Gabriele Münter created a series of paintings on cardboard, which she titled "abstract studies". "Abstract Study No. 4" is one of nine works which Herwarth Walden, owner of the gallery "Der Sturm" in Berlin sent to an exhibition in Stockholm in 1915.
Gabriele Münter had begun painting abstract works in 1912. According to Johannes Eichner, those abstract paintings were done on the basis of figurative motives, often impressions of landscapes. The Zurich series, and the present work, is based on the interior of a café, presumably the Café Odeon, which Jawlensky also frequented. These works are unique in Gabriele Münter’s oeuvre, for she never created abstract paintings after that.
Other works from the series were shown in the major Gabriele Münter exhibition at the Lenbachhaus in Munich in 2018.
