Alexej Georgewitsch von Jawlensky (; 13 March 1864 – 15 March 1941), surname also spelt as Yavlensky, was a Russian expressionist painter active in

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

. He was a key member of the New Munich Artist's Association ( Neue Künstlervereinigung München), Der Blaue Reiter (The Blue Rider) group and later Die Blaue Vier (The Blue Four).

Life and work

Alexej von Jawlensky was born in Torzhok, a town in Tver Governorate,

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

, as the fifth child of Georgi von Jawlensky and his wife Alexandra (née Medwedewa). At the age of ten he moved with his family to

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

. After a few years of military training, he became interested in painting, visiting the Moscow World Exposition c. 1880. Thanks to his good social connections, he managed to get himself posted to St. Petersburg and, from 1889 to 1896, studied at the art academy there, while also discharging his military duties. Jawlensky gained admittance to the circle of the renowned Russian realist painter Ilya Repin. There he met Marianne von Werefkin, a wealthy artist and former student of Repin. He requested that Werefkin be his mentor, and Werefkin decided to put her work on hold to promote his work and provide him with a comfortable lifestyle. Jawlensky and Werefkin moved to

Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...

in 1894, where he studied in the private school of Anton Ažbe. In 1905 Jawlensky visited Ferdinand Hodler, and two years later he began his long friendship with Jan Verkade and met Paul Sérusier. Together, Verkade and Sérusier transmitted to Jawlensky both practical and theoretical elements of the work of the Nabis, and Synthetist principles of art. In Munich he met

Wassily Kandinsky Wassily Wassilyevich Kandinsky ( – 13 December 1944) was a Russian painter and art theorist. Kandinsky is generally credited as one of the pioneers of abstract art, abstraction in western art. Born in Moscow, he spent his childhood in ...

and various other Russian artists, and he contributed to the formation of the Neue Künstlervereinigung München. His work in this period was lush and richly coloured, but later moved towards abstraction and a simplified, formulaic style. Between 1908 and 1910 Jawlensky and Werefkin spent summers in the Bavarian Alps with Kandinsky and his companion, the painter Gabriele Münter. Here, through painting landscapes of their mountainous surroundings, they experimented with one another's techniques and discussed the theoretical bases of their art. Following a trip to the Baltic coast, and renewed contact with Henri Matisse in 1911 and Emil Nolde in 1912, Jawlensky turned increasingly to the expressive use of colour and form alone in his portraits. Expelled from Germany in 1914 due to WWI, he moved to Switzerland. He met Emmy Scheyer in 1916 (Jawlensky gave her the affectionate nickname, Galka, a Russian word for jackdaw), another artist who abandoned her own work to champion his in the United States. After a hiatus in experimentation with the human form, Jawlensky produced perhaps his best-known series, the ''Mystical Heads'' (1917–19), and the ''Saviour’s Faces'' (1918–20), which are reminiscent of the traditional Russian Orthodox icons of his childhood. In 1921, Alexej von Jawlensky returned to Germany and took up residence in

Wiesbaden Wiesbaden (; ) is the capital of the German state of Hesse, and the second-largest Hessian city after Frankfurt am Main. With around 283,000 inhabitants, it is List of cities in Germany by population, Germany's 24th-largest city. Wiesbaden form ...

. There, in 1922, he married Werefkin's former maid Hélène Nesnakomoff, the mother of his only son,

Andreas Andreas () is a name derived from the Greek noun ἀνήρ ''anēr'', with genitive ἀνδρός ''andros'', which means "man". See the article on Andrew for more information. The Scandinavian name is earliest attested as antreos in a runeston ...

, who was born before their marriage (1902). In 1924 he established the Blue Four, whose works, thanks to Scheyer's tireless promotion, were jointly exhibited in Germany and the US. From 1929 Jawlensky suffered from progressively crippling arthritis, which necessitated a reduced scale and finally forced a cessation in his painting in 1937. He began to dictate his memoirs in 1938. He died in

, Germany, on 15 March 1941. He and his wife Helene are buried in the cemetery of St. Elizabeth's Church, Wiesbaden.

Legacy

In November 2003 his '' Schokko'' (''Schokko mit Tellerhut'') sold for US$9,296,000 and in February 2008 for GB£9,450,000 (US$18.43 million). The 2006 album by the jazz group Acoustic Ladyland, ''Skinny Grin'', features one of his works, ''Portrait of The Dancer Alexander Sacharoff'', as its cover art. The six CD's issued by CPO with the complete string quartets by the Polish composer Mieczysław Weinberg (1919–1996), and played by the Danel Quartet, all have a female portrait by von Jawlensky on their cover. Volume 1 shows "Frauenbildnis" (1909). Volume 2 has "Kind mit blauen Augen". Volume 3 has "Weiblicher Kopf" (1912). Volume 4 has "Mädchen mit Haube" (1910). Volume 5 has "Spanierin" (1911). And volume 6 shows "Kopf" (1912).

Alexej of Jawlensky-Award

In remembrance of the artist, in 1991 the "Jawlensky Award" has been coined. Every five years it is being awarded to contemporary artists by the capital of the federal state of Hesse

, the Spielbank Wiesbaden and the Nassauische Sparkasse. The award is accompanied by a cash prize, an exhibition at the Museum Wiesbaden and the purchase of a work.

Works

Paintings by von Jawlensky are displayed in galleries and museums around the world. The Museum Ostwall in Dortmund, Germany, maintains a collection of exceptional depth. The largest collection of works by von Jawlensky is kept at the

Museum Wiesbaden The Museum Wiesbaden is a two-branch museum of Art museum, art and Natural history museum, natural history in the Hesse, Hessian capital of Wiesbaden, Germany. It is one of the three Hessian State museums, in addition to the museums in Hessian ...

, which owns more than 90 works of the artist, and forms the most important collection of his work in Europe.

Representative works

File:Blumenstilleben (Still Life with Flowers) by Alexej von Jawlensky.jpg, ''Blumenstilleben'', 1908. Private collection. File:Alexej Jawlensky - Schokko with Red Hat (1909).jpg, ''Schokko with Red Hat'', 1909 File:Jawlensky Sakharoff.jpg, ''Portrait of Alexander Sakharoff'', 1909 File:Alexej von Jawlensky - Schokko mit Tellerhut.jpg, ''Schokko with Wide Brimmed Hat'', 1910 File:Alexej von Jawlensky - Der violette Turban.jpg, ''Violet Turban'', 1911 File:Head of a Youth–Jawlensky (1911).jpg, ''Head of a youth'', 1911 File:Alexej von Jawlensky (selfportrait).jpeg, ''Self-Portrait'', 1912 File:Alexej von Jawlensky - Kopf in Blau.jpg, ''Head in Blue'', 1912 File:Brown curls–Jawlensky (1913).jpg, ''Brown curls,'' 1913 File:Alexej von Jawlensky Variation c1916.jpg, ''Variation'', 1916 File:Alexej von Jawlensky - Heilandsgesicht, Märtyrer.jpg, ''Savior's Face: Martyr'', 1919 File:Alexej von Jawlensky - Verwunderung.jpg, ''Astonishment'', 1919, Norton Simon Museum,

Pasadena, California Pasadena ( ) is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States, northeast of downtown Los Angeles. It is the most populous city and the primary cultural center of the San Gabriel Valley. Old Pasadena is the city's original commerci ...

File:Jawlensky-Alexej-von Tete-de-femme-Meduse Lumiere-et-Ombre 1923.jpg, '' Medusa'', 1923

References

External links

Official Website

Galerie Ludorff, Düsseldorf, Germany
''Biography of Alexej Georgewitsch von Jawlensky''

Information
with links fro
the-artists.org
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jawlensky, Alexej Von 1864 births 1941 deaths People from Torzhok German Expressionist painters 19th-century German painters German male painters 20th-century German painters 20th-century German male artists Painters from the Russian Empire Emigrants from the Russian Empire to the German Empire 19th-century German male artists