Wassily Kandinsky (1866–1944) was a Russian painter and art theorist. He is credited with painting one of the first purely abstract works. He enrolled at the University of Moscow, studying law and economics. Though successful in his legal profession Kandinsky turned to painting at the age of 30 after seeing the work of Claude Monet. In 1896, Kandinsky settled in Munich, studying first with Anton Ažbe, then at the Academy of Fine Arts. He returned to Moscow in 1914 and became an important cultural administrator for Vladimir Lenin’s government. In 1920 he went to Germany, to teach at the Bauhaus School. Upon its closure by the Nazis he then moved to France in 1933, where he lived for the rest of his life.
