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Lot Essay
When Germany announced the outbreak of war on 1 August 1914, the painter Alexej von Jawlensky was forced to flee his adopted home of Munich, travelling with his family over the border to Switzerland, where he would remain for the following seven years. As the artist recalled, this exodus caused a major disruption in his paintings, completely upending his creative outlook: “In the beginning… I tried to continue painting as I had in Munich, but something inside me would not allow me to go on with those colorful, powerful, sensual works. I realized that my soul had undergone a change as a result of so much suffering and that I had therefore to discover different forms and colors to express what my soul felt” (quoted in V.E. Barnett, Alexei Jawlensky, exh. cat., The Neue Galerie, New York, 2017, p. 51).
As a result, Jawlensky began to re-think his approach to art-making—looking beyond the natural world as a source of creative stimulus, he explored a more inward-focused vision, rooted in sustained contemplation and the spiritual. The artist began working in concentrated series, in which each individual composition related or responded to the next. For Jawlensky, this process offered an important means of exploring the meditative, introspective aspects of his subject matter. “I am not so much searching for new forms,” he explained, “but I want to go deeper; not to progress in breadth but in depth” (quoted in C. Weiler, Jawlensky: Heads Faces Meditations, New York, 1971, p. 17). While his series began with his Variations paintings, which focused on the view of the landscape through the window of the artist’s new home, Jawlensky was soon drawn back to one of his favorite subjects—the human face—with his Mystischer Kopf compositions.
Jawlensky believed that the human visage could act as a medium for the experience of transcendence, with prolonged contemplation of the face eliciting a spiritual experience in both the artist and the viewer. In a letter written to the painter, monk and member of the Nabis, Pater Willibrod Verkade, Jawlensky explained: “it was necessary for me to find a form for the face, since I had understood that great art can be made only with religious feeling. And I could bring that only into the human face… I painted many, many faces… They radiate great spirituality” (letter to P.W. Verkade, Wiesbaden, 12 June 1938, quoted in M. Jawlensky, L. Pieroni-Jawlensky and A. Jawlensky, op. cit., 1992, vol. I, p. 34). The resulting works are characterized by an intensely pared-back aesthetic, the figure’s features reduced to simple, geometric forms and free-floating lines, which were then filled with soft, effervescent touches of color. In this way, Jawlensky hoped to capture “not just a face but the whole universe. In the face the whole universe becomes manifest” (quoted in C. Weiler, op. cit., 1971, p. 56).
The initial spark of inspiration for the Mysticher Kopf pictures appears to have come from the artist’s meeting with Emmy Scheyer, who would go on to become one of the artist’s most devoted and enduring supporters. Scheyer had first discovered Jawlensky’s work at an exhibition in Lausanne in 1915 and, determined to meet the artist, she travelled to his home and promptly introduced herself. The two quickly developed a close and lasting friendship, rooted in a rich intellectual exchange and a shared fascination with spiritualism. It was Jawlensky who gave Scheyer the nickname “Galka,” inspired by a dream in which a jackdaw befriended and comforted him, and she swiftly adopted the moniker. Though Scheyer was a young art student when they met, she was so impressed by the power of Jawlensky’s unique vision that she soon abandoned her own efforts, believing that she could never attain such a purity of intent in her painting. Instead, Scheyer decided to devote herself to promoting Jawlensky’s work internationally, signing a contract in 1919 to write a book about the artist, and later becoming his personal secretary. Most importantly, Scheyer took it upon herself to organize several key exhibitions of Jawlensky’s paintings through the early 1920s, which she supplemented with impassioned lectures and tours, and became the artist’s principal dealer in America during the 1920s and 1930s.
While Scheyer’s features provided the prompt for the Mysticher Kopf paintings, they were not portraits in the traditional sense, but rather a schematic rendering of her features, her large almond-shaped eyes, gently sloped nose and spiraling locks of hair recorded in simplified geometric forms. Jawlensky also modelled a number of the Mysticher Kopfs on various friends, acquaintances and family members during these years, including the dancer Charlotte Bara, Anika Jan, and his long-term partner Hélène Nesnakomoff, adapting this new visual language to their individual features. In Mysticher Kopf: Blauer Mund, the sitter’s enormous eyes dominate the composition, their vivid blue tones adding a magnetic, absorbing quality to the portrait. While there is a slight asymmetry to her features—from the curve of her top lip, slightly fuller on one side, to the alignment of her pupils—the clarity of the artist’s line and deliberate placement of each plane of color, ensures the woman’s face remains lyrically balanced.
Mystischer Kopf: Blauer Mund remained in Jawlensky’s personal collection until his death, and was purchased shortly thereafter by the celebrated screenwriter and film director Billy Wilder and his wife Audrey. Born in Austria, Wilder had initially started out in journalism, before transitioning to the film industry, writing scripts for several German and French films through the early 1930s. When Hitler came to power in 1933, Wilder made the decision to leave Europe, emigrating to America and settling in Los Angeles. His first screenwriting projects in Hollywood were most often collaborations, working with secondary writers who could translate his contributions into English, but he quickly made a name for himself, and in 1942, Wilder made the move into directing. He found enormous success two years later with Double Indemnity, starring Barbara Stanwyck and Fred MacMurray, which earned him the first of his seven Oscar nominations. Cinematic classics such as Sunset Boulevard, The Apartment and Some Like It Hot, followed, cementing Wilder’s place as one of the leading writer-directors in the history of cinema. He met Audrey, an actress with Paramount Pictures, on set in 1945, and the two remained married for over fifty years. Mystischer Kopf: Blauer Mund spent almost three decades in the Wilders’ dynamic collection, hanging in the living room of their home in Beverly Hills alongside artworks by Pablo Picasso, Alexander Calder, Paul Klee, Fernand Léger and Jean Dubuffet, among others.
As a result, Jawlensky began to re-think his approach to art-making—looking beyond the natural world as a source of creative stimulus, he explored a more inward-focused vision, rooted in sustained contemplation and the spiritual. The artist began working in concentrated series, in which each individual composition related or responded to the next. For Jawlensky, this process offered an important means of exploring the meditative, introspective aspects of his subject matter. “I am not so much searching for new forms,” he explained, “but I want to go deeper; not to progress in breadth but in depth” (quoted in C. Weiler, Jawlensky: Heads Faces Meditations, New York, 1971, p. 17). While his series began with his Variations paintings, which focused on the view of the landscape through the window of the artist’s new home, Jawlensky was soon drawn back to one of his favorite subjects—the human face—with his Mystischer Kopf compositions.
Jawlensky believed that the human visage could act as a medium for the experience of transcendence, with prolonged contemplation of the face eliciting a spiritual experience in both the artist and the viewer. In a letter written to the painter, monk and member of the Nabis, Pater Willibrod Verkade, Jawlensky explained: “it was necessary for me to find a form for the face, since I had understood that great art can be made only with religious feeling. And I could bring that only into the human face… I painted many, many faces… They radiate great spirituality” (letter to P.W. Verkade, Wiesbaden, 12 June 1938, quoted in M. Jawlensky, L. Pieroni-Jawlensky and A. Jawlensky, op. cit., 1992, vol. I, p. 34). The resulting works are characterized by an intensely pared-back aesthetic, the figure’s features reduced to simple, geometric forms and free-floating lines, which were then filled with soft, effervescent touches of color. In this way, Jawlensky hoped to capture “not just a face but the whole universe. In the face the whole universe becomes manifest” (quoted in C. Weiler, op. cit., 1971, p. 56).
The initial spark of inspiration for the Mysticher Kopf pictures appears to have come from the artist’s meeting with Emmy Scheyer, who would go on to become one of the artist’s most devoted and enduring supporters. Scheyer had first discovered Jawlensky’s work at an exhibition in Lausanne in 1915 and, determined to meet the artist, she travelled to his home and promptly introduced herself. The two quickly developed a close and lasting friendship, rooted in a rich intellectual exchange and a shared fascination with spiritualism. It was Jawlensky who gave Scheyer the nickname “Galka,” inspired by a dream in which a jackdaw befriended and comforted him, and she swiftly adopted the moniker. Though Scheyer was a young art student when they met, she was so impressed by the power of Jawlensky’s unique vision that she soon abandoned her own efforts, believing that she could never attain such a purity of intent in her painting. Instead, Scheyer decided to devote herself to promoting Jawlensky’s work internationally, signing a contract in 1919 to write a book about the artist, and later becoming his personal secretary. Most importantly, Scheyer took it upon herself to organize several key exhibitions of Jawlensky’s paintings through the early 1920s, which she supplemented with impassioned lectures and tours, and became the artist’s principal dealer in America during the 1920s and 1930s.
While Scheyer’s features provided the prompt for the Mysticher Kopf paintings, they were not portraits in the traditional sense, but rather a schematic rendering of her features, her large almond-shaped eyes, gently sloped nose and spiraling locks of hair recorded in simplified geometric forms. Jawlensky also modelled a number of the Mysticher Kopfs on various friends, acquaintances and family members during these years, including the dancer Charlotte Bara, Anika Jan, and his long-term partner Hélène Nesnakomoff, adapting this new visual language to their individual features. In Mysticher Kopf: Blauer Mund, the sitter’s enormous eyes dominate the composition, their vivid blue tones adding a magnetic, absorbing quality to the portrait. While there is a slight asymmetry to her features—from the curve of her top lip, slightly fuller on one side, to the alignment of her pupils—the clarity of the artist’s line and deliberate placement of each plane of color, ensures the woman’s face remains lyrically balanced.
Mystischer Kopf: Blauer Mund remained in Jawlensky’s personal collection until his death, and was purchased shortly thereafter by the celebrated screenwriter and film director Billy Wilder and his wife Audrey. Born in Austria, Wilder had initially started out in journalism, before transitioning to the film industry, writing scripts for several German and French films through the early 1930s. When Hitler came to power in 1933, Wilder made the decision to leave Europe, emigrating to America and settling in Los Angeles. His first screenwriting projects in Hollywood were most often collaborations, working with secondary writers who could translate his contributions into English, but he quickly made a name for himself, and in 1942, Wilder made the move into directing. He found enormous success two years later with Double Indemnity, starring Barbara Stanwyck and Fred MacMurray, which earned him the first of his seven Oscar nominations. Cinematic classics such as Sunset Boulevard, The Apartment and Some Like It Hot, followed, cementing Wilder’s place as one of the leading writer-directors in the history of cinema. He met Audrey, an actress with Paramount Pictures, on set in 1945, and the two remained married for over fifty years. Mystischer Kopf: Blauer Mund spent almost three decades in the Wilders’ dynamic collection, hanging in the living room of their home in Beverly Hills alongside artworks by Pablo Picasso, Alexander Calder, Paul Klee, Fernand Léger and Jean Dubuffet, among others.