"Untitled", 1940

Kandinsky painted 224 watercolours and gouaches during his time in Paris from 1934 until his death in 1944 - from 1942 onwards, he only painted a handful until 1944. The titles have been consistently in French since Kandinsky's arrival in France. From 1940 onwards, the works have titles only in exceptional cases and are almost universally described by Kandinsky as "Sans titre". However, as Will Grohmann describes it in his early monograph of 1958, the works were often given descriptive titles or titles invented by the owner. He cites "Small Ships" as an example of such an invented title. It is very likely that this refers to the present work (Grohmann, Will. Wassily Kandinsky - Leben und Werk. Cologne 1958. p. 242).