From Hans K. Roethel and Jean K. Benjamin: Kandinsky, Hudson Hills Press, 1979

Visual evidence as well as an unpublished statement by the artist about Small Pleasures make it clear that the work was based on a somewhat earlier painting on glass which at one time was entitled Glass Painting with Sun (Glasbild mit Sonne, 1910, Lenbachhaus, Munich). In this statement Kandinsky says that the softness of its colors—which was accentuated by the use of gold and silver—made him want to recreate those characteristics on canvas. He claims that the composition of Small Pleasures is different from all his other paintings, and he considers it to be so uncomplicated that even a blind man should be able to recognize its deliberate simplicity. He points out that the center is composed of two parts, indicating that a large plane is contrasted with a multicolored pattern on top of it. Thus, while explaining his picture he verbally conceals what is, in fact, visually apparent—that is, that there is a mountain crowned with a with a Kreml-like structure in the center of the painting (Nonesense, there are no Kremlins on mountain tops in Russia. This is the Holy Mountain of Bavaria: Kloster Andechs above Lake Ammersee not far from Murnau! And on the left they are rafting on the Isar. R. Gross). In further commenting on the simplicity of the composition he calls attention to the four comers of the painting, each of them being "different and strong and selfevident." He reflects at length about the pleasure it gave him when painting it. He refers to the "fine and very fine lines" that he minutely executed with a very thin brush; he recalls the satisfaction that he felt when he had succeeded in treating the gold and silver so that they did not have a luster. And finally, he remembers the excitement of letting himself go by "pouring a lot of small pleasures onto the canvas."

Throughout his commentary there is not one word about the kind of pleasures that may be represented in the painting. But the glass painting does provide some clues, and it becomes apparent that the small pleasures actually consist of horseback riding, walking, loving, boating (on Ammersee)—under a glowing sun, in a benign world!

There is one indication, however, that dark clouds may appear on the horizon (1913!)—the pattern in the upper righthand comer. While the painting as a whole reminded him of the joyous sound of small drops falling into water, the dark forms seemed like the melancholy sound of a bass, not yet really dangerous but menacing enough to make one stop and think.

Altogether, Small Pleasures is a happy and lively painting, and Kandinsky must have been very fond of it. More than ten years later he wanted his young wife Nina to know what Small Pleasures looked like so he painted Reminiscences for her, a work of 1924 that is strongly evocative (and explanatory) of the 1913 canvas.