Gabrielle Munter

During the last six months I discovered a new heroine-Gabrielle Munter.I am sure Gabrielle's story is well known in Germany but not so well known elsewhere. briefly this is it.
Gabrielle was a lady of fairly independant means in the early 1900's(she was born in 1877)She studied art and in 1902 enrolled in an art class run in Munich by Kandinsky-Kandinsky was married but never the less was attracted to Gabrielle It was a year later that he overcame his moral scruples and started an affair with Gabrielle together they travelled through Europe and Gabrielle eventually brought a house in Murnau Bavaria for them in 1907.Kandinsky and Gabrielle were very involved in the art movements that became called Expressionism. Gabrielles paintings are more accessible than Kandinsky's.
it was in 1914 that Kandinsky left Gabrielle to go back to Russia-she met him once more in sweden in 1916 an acrimonious meeting where he was demanding the painting she held of his-I guess Gabrielle was devasted she probably felt she had given the best years of her life to this guy who had just ditched her! In 1917 kandinsky married a 17 year girl-he was in his 40's.
Gabrielle -no mean artist stopped painting for a while.It wasn't untill1927 that she formed a new relationship with the art critic Johannes Eichner.She watched the rise of the Reich and when they exhibited the notorious "entartete (degenerate)art" exhibition in 1937 she realised finally the way the wind was blowing and collected from her old friends in the Expressionist movement as much expressionistic art as she could and hid it in her house in Murnau.(800 pieces in total).
The Nazi's must have suspected that she had these works for on 3 occaissions they ransacked the house unsuccessfully. I think had they found the work she would have been shipped to the camps. Anyway Gabrielle was very poor-painting pictures for food.
After the war the Americans came looking for expressionistic art-on two occaisions-they didn't find anything either.
In1950 when the dust of war was blowing over she was approached by the director of the Stadtische Gallerie im Lebenbach Hause in Munich to see if she could help with an exhibition on expressionism-she gradually released and gave to the gallery her collection that she had carefully saved.It was the biggest art bequest of the 20th. century.Almost singled handedly she bravely had preserved the expressionistic movement.
What can you say -what a star -what a brave lady-she died in 1962-but we should celebrate her and her style!