Alexej von Jawlensky

Alexej von Jawlensky was a Russian painter associated with the Expressionist group Der Blaue Reiter active in Munich. Born in 1864 in Torzhok, Russia, Jawlensky began his artistic training in Moscow before moving to Munich in 1896. There, he became part of an avant-garde circle that included influential artists like Wassily Kandinsky and Gabriele Münter.

Jawlensky’s use of rich, non-naturalistic pigments owes a clear debt to the art of Henri Matisse and the Fauves, whom he had first encountered during a visit to Paris in 1905, when several of his paintings were exhibited in the Russian section of the Salon d’Automne. Jawlensky was particularly inspired by the Fauves’ dynamic, chromatic vocabulary. Together, they opened his eyes to a form of art which was no longer tied to the visible world, in which colour could become a powerful force for personal expression.

In 1912, Jawlensky began to display an increasing interest in depicting cultural types and characters in his portraits. Many of Jawlensky’s portraits from this time crossed a broad spectrum of identities, from the women of Sicily, Macedonia and Spain to anonymous figures from distant lands.

As his style evolved towards Expressionism, Jawlensky focused on the emotional and spiritual qualities of colour and form. In 1924 he helped establish the Der Blaue Reiter group, alongside Kandinsky, Paul Klee, Lyonel Feininger and others. This period was marked by a deep exploration of portraiture as an object of religious meditation, where he sought to express spiritual themes through the human face.

In the late 1920s, Jawlensky was afflicted with arthritis, which impended his mobility and brought his painting career to an eventual end in 1937. Jawlensky died in Wiesbaden, Germany in 1941. Today, Alexej von Jawlensky’s paintings can be found in the collections of the Art Institute of Chicago, the Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg, the Albertina in Vienna, and many more.