Wassily Wassilyevich Kandinsky (16 December [O.S. 4 December] 1866, Moscow – 13 December 1944) was a Russian painter, and art theorist, credited with painting the first modern abstract works. He started painting studies at the age of 30. In 1896. Settled in Munich, he studied first in the private school of Anton Ažbe and then at the Academy of Fine Arts, Munich. He went back to Moscow in 1914, after World War I started. He continued his study at Bauhaus school of art from 1922 to 1933. He then moved to France where he lived the rest of his life, and became a French citizen in 1939. He died at Neuilly-sur-Seine in 1944.

Kandinsky's works had been sold at high prices. Some of which includes Fugue (1914) sold at Sotheby's New York for EUR 18,332,530 in 1990, Studie zu Improvisation 3 (1909) at Christie's New York for EUR 11,596,500 in 2008, Sketch 1 for composition VII (1913) at Sotheby's London for EUR 6,387,614 in 1992, Krass und Mild Dramatic and Mild (1932) at Sotheby's New York for EUR 6,382,600 in 2009, Starnberger See Lake Starnberg (1908) at Sotheby's New York for EUR 6,373,890 in 2006.