The encounter with Claude Monet's painting "Haystacks" in 1896 marked a turning point in Wassily Kandinsky's life. From an art-interested lawyer, he evolved over the following years into one of the most important abstract painters of the 20th century. He was part of famous artist communities such as the "Blue Rider," maintained friendships with well-known colleagues like Franz Marc and Paul Klee, and worked as a lecturer at the Bauhaus in Weimar and Dessau. Additionally, he had a tumultuous yet artistically fruitful love affair with the German painter Gabriele Münter for several years before finding personal happiness in 1917 with the thirty years younger Russian Nina Andrejewskaja. In 1933, he fled to France to escape the National Socialists, for whom his works were considered "degenerate art." Until his death in exile in Paris, Kandinsky painted and created some of his greatest masterpieces.