Gesenkter Kopf

Details

Alexej von Jawlensky (1864-1941)
Gesenkter Kopf
signed 'A. Jawlensky' (lower left); with Emmy 'Galka' Scheyer's inscribed inventory label numbered '19D 25' (on the reverse)
oil on board
25 5/8 x 20¼in. (65.1 x 51.4cm.)
Painted in 1909

Provenance

Anon. sale, Stuttgarter Kunstkabinett, R. N. Ketterer, Stuttgart, 20-21 May 1960, lot 219.
Ellen Melas Kyriazi, Lausanne.
Anon. sale, Sotheby's New York, 10 May 1988, lot 32.
Acquired at the above sale by the present owner.

Literature

M. Jawlensky, L. Pieroni-Jawlensky & A. Jawlensky, Alexej von Jawlensky, catalogue raisonné of the oil paintings, vol. I, 1890-1914, London, 1992, no. 254 (illustrated p. 218).

Exhibited

Berlin, Neue Sezession, IV. Ausstellung, November 1911-January 1912, no. 88 (for sale at 800 DM).
Budapest, Nemzeti Szalon, A Futuristák és Expressionisták Kiállitásának, January-February 1913, no. 57.
(Probably) Hamburg, Galerie Commeter, Alexej von Jawlensky, 1920; arranged by Emmy 'Galka' Scheyer this exhibition toured several German cities over a four year period including Munich, Barmen, Dusseldorf, Mannheim, Essen, Hamburg, Weimar, Jena, Stettin, Erfurt, Halle, Dresden, Berlin, Frankfurt, Leipzig, Chemnitz, Stuttgart, Kassel, Bremen, Cologne and Elberfeld.
London, The Redfern Gallery, Alexej Jawlensky, October 1960, no. 58.
Lugano, Pinacoteca Comunale, Alexej Jawlensky, Mostra antologica, September-November 1989, no. 27 (illustrated in colour p. 51).
Paris, Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Le Fauvisme ou l'Epreuve du feu, October 1999-February 2000, no. 150 (illustrated in colour p. 306).

Special notice

No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 17.5% will be added to the buyer's premium which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis.

Sale room notice

Please note that this work is slightly larger than described in the catalogue. The correct dimensions are 25½ x 21¼in. (64.8 x 53.5cm.)

Please also note the following extra provenance for this work: Prior to its sale at the Stuttgarter Kunstkabinett in 1960 the work was housed in a private collection in Wiesbaden. At the sale it was purchased by M. Chalom of Paris.

Lot Essay

'The paintings were ardent in their colours and my mind was content... So, for the first time I had understood how to paint not what I see, but what I feel.' (Alexej von Jawlensky, quoted in Rudy Chiappini, 'Una pittura sensuale e voluttuosa', Alexej von Jawlensky, Exib. cat., Milan, 1995, pp. 11-18.) Executed in 1909, Gesenkter Kopf dates from the period in which Jawlensky began to find and consolidate his own individualised avant-garde artistic language. Much of Jawlensky's artistic training was gained in Munich, although he had already studied art in St. Petersburg where he had been introduced to French Impressionism. The Munich influence is especially evident in his choice of colours, a direct legacy of German Expressionism. However, the modelling of the head in Gesenkter Kopf is less reminiscent of Expressionism than of French Fauvism. It was in 1905, while staying in Brittany, that Jawlensky was for the first time satisfied with his work, and this satisfaction increased with his developing artistic skills and resources. During this period, Jawlensky became particularly interested in the theories of colourism and, by 1907, the influence of the French Fauve painters began to shine through his work. The present painting shows Jawlensky's tremendous debt to Matisse who he, like his fellow Expressionists, studied extremely closely between 1908 and 1910.

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