Marianne von Werefkin was not only a talented artist but also a shrewd free thinker and hostess: at the beginning of the twentieth century famous artists including Wassily Kandinsky, Gabriele Munter, Alfred Kubin, Adolf Erbsloeh, Erma Bossi, Franz Marc and August Macke assembled in Marianne von Werefkin's salon in the Schwabing district of Munich.

After a long break from painting in order to further her companion Alexej Jawlensky, Werefkin returned to her own art in 1906 and created fascinating works in a new, expressive style. Descended from a family of Russian aristocrats, the artist was an important forerunner and co-founder of the Neue Kunstlervereinigung Munchen (Munich New Artist's Association), from which the Blauer Reiter developed. In addition to the artist's early works from Russia and the Expressionist pictures which resulted from her sojourns in the region around Murnau, the Werefkin specialist Brigitte Salmen presents an appreciation of the artist's later work, which is less well known and which was created in Ascona, where she lived in exile in Switzerland.