Wassily Kandinsky (1886 - 1944) is considered the originator of Abstract art. Kandinsky, who was also an accomplished musician, believed that art could visually express musical compositions. He associated a color's tone with musical timbre, hue with pitch, and saturation with the volume of sound. Music influenced his art to such a degree that Kandinsky named his works after musical terms. Originally a lawyer in his native Russia, he was inspired to study art at age 30 after seeing Monet's Haystacks. Kandinsky was gripped by a compulsion to relentlessly create and believed that this drive would evoke a correspondingly powerful response in viewers of his work.