Sixty Works by Modern Masters - Flipbook - Page 33
Alexej von Jawlensky
"Every day I painted these
variations of colour, inspired
all the time by Nature’s
mood at any given moment
in relation to my own
spirit."
Alexej von Jawlensky
Russian, 1864 - 1941
Variation: Sonnenaufgang (Variation: Sunrise), 1918
Oil on linen-finish paper laid down on board
14 x 10¾ inches / 35.8 x 27.3 cm
Signed and dated lower right: AJ 18
Alexej von Jawlensky began his
extended series of landscape
Variations following the outbreak
of the First World War. The series
was based on a scene through the
artist’s window at St-Prex, near Lake
Geneva.
In these compositions, Jawlensky
paints in clear, luminous colours
applied to the canvas in thin layers
of wash. The series influenced and
overlapped the earliest examples of
the artist’s Meditative Heads.
Two years before his death,
Jawlensky said of his approach to
painting:
‘Every artist works in a tradition… I
am Russian-born. As such my heart
and soul have always felt close to
Old Russian art, to Russian icons…
and the art of the Romanesque
period. All these arts would set up
a holy vibration in my soul for they
spoke to me in a language of deep
spirituality. It was this art that gave
me my tradition.’
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Provenance
Estate of the artist
Jacques Fricker, France
Frankfurter Kunstkabinett, Frankfurt, by 1959
The Redfern Gallery, London, 1960
Christopher Bibby, London, 1960 (acquired from the above)
Rutland Gallery, London
The Redfern Gallery, London, 2004
Acquired from the above by the previous owner, September 2004
Exhibited
Frankfurt, Frankfurter Kunstkabinett & Munich, Kunstkabinett Klihm,
Alexej von Jawlensky, 1954, no. 28
Literature
Clemens Weiler, Alexej Jawlensky, Cologne, 1959, no. 630, illustrated p. 271
Maria Jawlensky, Lucia Pieroni-Jawlensky & Angelica Jawlensky, Alexej von
Jawlensky, Catalogue Raisonné of the Oil Paintings, 1914-1933, London,
1992, vol. II, no. 1033, illustrated in colour p. 278