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Lot Essay
When analysing Jawlensky's most original canvases of the end of the 1910s, one is not surprised to discover that the artist's private art collection included a number of Persian miniatures (probably acquired on the occasion of a major exhibition of Islamic art in Munich in 1910), two works by Ferdinand Hodler, one by Gauguin, and an oil by Van Gogh - La maison du Père Pilon (F 791), bought from the 1908 exhibition at the Galerie Brakl in Munich, at great financial sacrifice and with the help of the widow of Theo Van Gogh. Bright palettes, a two-dimensional decorative concern, and clearly traced linear rythms are the formal elements common to this impressive gallery of works, elements which also clearly mark Jawlensky's production during the first decade of the century.
Landschaft bei Murnau was painted by Jawlensky during his stay in the Bavarian village in the summer of 1909. Discovered by Kandinsky and Mnter in the summer of 1908, Murnau became the favoured retreat of several young Munich artists (see figs.1 and 2) who gathered in the alpine village for three summers in a row. In 1909, the group included the Jawlenskys, Kandinsky, Mnter and Marianne von Werefkin. After an intense summer in Murnau, the artists significantly protracted their committment to a common, militant fight for a new art: with the Murnau group and Adolf Erbslöh (see lot 32), Alexander Kanolt, Alfred Kubin, Heinrich Schnabel and Oskar Wittenstein, Jawlensky founded the Neue Knstlervereinigung Munich, of which Kandinsky was the first and Jawlensky the second Chairman. The group's first exhibition was in December 1909 in the Moderne Galerie Thannhauser, in Munich. Encouraged by these personal and collective achievements, towards the end of 1910 Jawlensky had reached 'un proprio compiuto e originale linguaggio fondato su un impiego altamente espressivo del colore e sull'astrazione, da intendere quale estrema semplificazione formale: una pittura forte e vibrante, di una straordinaria intensitá' (R. Chiappini, 'Una pittura sensuale e voluttuosa', in Alexei von Jawlensky, exhibition catalogue, Milano, Palazzo Reale, April - June 1995, p. 17).
Jawlensky repudiated Kirchner's and Heckel's overwhelming - almost paralysing - formal tension, and found in the Neo-Impressionist approach to perspective, as well as in the fauve use of colour, the perfect basis for his pictorial language. Particularly in his pre-war paintings, as J.T. Demetrion writes, 'Vibrant yellow-greens clash with brilliant orange-reds and the color areas become even more intense when enclosed by black, green or blue contours. At times... the color areas are activated by rapidly scrawled brushstrokes. More often, compartmented areas of bright hues enclosed by dark, bold lines tend to bring colors forward in such a way as to accentuate the painted surface. Spatial recession is often denied to such an extent that a remarkably flat pictorial space is achieved' ('Alexei Jawlensky. Variation and Meditation', in Alexei Jawlensky, Los Angeles, 1964. p. 11).
Landschaft bei Murnau was painted by Jawlensky during his stay in the Bavarian village in the summer of 1909. Discovered by Kandinsky and Mnter in the summer of 1908, Murnau became the favoured retreat of several young Munich artists (see figs.1 and 2) who gathered in the alpine village for three summers in a row. In 1909, the group included the Jawlenskys, Kandinsky, Mnter and Marianne von Werefkin. After an intense summer in Murnau, the artists significantly protracted their committment to a common, militant fight for a new art: with the Murnau group and Adolf Erbslöh (see lot 32), Alexander Kanolt, Alfred Kubin, Heinrich Schnabel and Oskar Wittenstein, Jawlensky founded the Neue Knstlervereinigung Munich, of which Kandinsky was the first and Jawlensky the second Chairman. The group's first exhibition was in December 1909 in the Moderne Galerie Thannhauser, in Munich. Encouraged by these personal and collective achievements, towards the end of 1910 Jawlensky had reached 'un proprio compiuto e originale linguaggio fondato su un impiego altamente espressivo del colore e sull'astrazione, da intendere quale estrema semplificazione formale: una pittura forte e vibrante, di una straordinaria intensitá' (R. Chiappini, 'Una pittura sensuale e voluttuosa', in Alexei von Jawlensky, exhibition catalogue, Milano, Palazzo Reale, April - June 1995, p. 17).
Jawlensky repudiated Kirchner's and Heckel's overwhelming - almost paralysing - formal tension, and found in the Neo-Impressionist approach to perspective, as well as in the fauve use of colour, the perfect basis for his pictorial language. Particularly in his pre-war paintings, as J.T. Demetrion writes, 'Vibrant yellow-greens clash with brilliant orange-reds and the color areas become even more intense when enclosed by black, green or blue contours. At times... the color areas are activated by rapidly scrawled brushstrokes. More often, compartmented areas of bright hues enclosed by dark, bold lines tend to bring colors forward in such a way as to accentuate the painted surface. Spatial recession is often denied to such an extent that a remarkably flat pictorial space is achieved' ('Alexei Jawlensky. Variation and Meditation', in Alexei Jawlensky, Los Angeles, 1964. p. 11).