Rapallo, 1905 by Wassily Kandinsky

One of Kondinsky's students at the Phalanx School was Gabriele Munter, who from 1902 also become his companion. After 1903 they began travelling around Europe together, often for several months at a time, and from December 1905 until April 1906 they visited Italy, where this picture was probably executed.

Prior to that, Kandinsky had already met Alexei Jawlensky in Munich, at Azbe's studio. Jawlensky had originally trained in Paris and was therefore exposed to the French avant-garde Post-Impressionists, such as Georges Seurat and the later works of Camille Pissarro, both of whom pointed in a Divisionist style of juxtaposed colours, Kandinsky, with Munter, also travelled to Holland in May and June 1904, and probably saw the early work of Piet Mondrian (1872-1944) who had also adopted a Divisionist technique prior to his experiments with Abstraction. The paintings of both Kandinsky and Mondrian from this period demonstrate a tendency to point in a Divisionist manner, using heavy impasto brushstrokes of paint applied, giving the works on immediate feel. It is Kandinsky, though, who emphasizes an early affinity for the use of primary colours, rather than Mondrian, who at this stage is still using a muted palette.