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Alexej von Jawlensky (1864-1941)
- Variation: Winter

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Alexej von Jawlensky (1864-1941)
Variation: Winter
Estimate
(Set Currency)
    £120,000 - £160,000
  • ($194,520 - $259,360)

Sale Information

Sale 7833
Impressionist/Modern Day Sale
3 February 2010
London, King Street




Lot Description

Alexej von Jawlensky (1864-1941)
Variation: Winter
signed with the initials 'A.J.' (lower left)
oil on linen-finish paper laid down on card
14 1/8 x 11 in. (35.7 x 28 cm.)
Painted circa 1918

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VAT rate of 5% is payable on hammer price and at 17.5% on the buyer's premium.

Provenance

Crane Kalman Gallery, London.
Anonymous sale, R.N. Ketterer, Campione d'Italia, 1968, lot 49.
Anonymous sale, R.N. Ketterer, Campione d'Italia, 1969, lot 35.
Tokyo Gallery, Tokyo.
Anonymous sale, Christie's, London, 26 June 2001, lot 248.

Literature

M. Jawlensky, M. Pieroni-Jawlensky & A. Jawlensky, Alexej von Jawlensky, Catalogue Raisonné of the Oil Paintings, vol. II, 1914-1933, London, 1992, no. 1049 (illustrated p. 249).

Exhibited

Frankfurt, Frankfurter Kunstkabinett [Hanna Becker vom Rath], April - March 1954, no. 25; this exhibition later travelled to Munich, Kunstkabinett Klihm.
(possibly) London, Redfern Gallery, Alexej von Jawlensky 1864-1941, May - June 1956.
London, Crane Kalman Gallery, 1961 (illustrated).
New York, Spencer A. Samuels & Co., Expressionismus, 1968, no. 7 (illustrated).

Lot Notes

Infused with delicate colour and an absorbing visual rhythm, the present work, painted circa 1918, is an engaging example of Jawlensky's series of works referred to as the Variations. The name of this series was a deliberate reference to the musical inspiration that lay behind them. This was to be the first theme that Jawlensky would explore in a series, a system of depiction that would define his oeuvre for the rest of his life. Variation: Winter conveys a powerful sense of emptiness and solitude, a pictorial representation of Jawlensky's state of mind at the time of its execution.

When the First World War began, Jawlensky, a Russian national, was forced to leave Germany with his family. Having been at the epicentre of the Munich art scene for almost two decades, the sudden isolation of his new lodgings in Saint-Prex in Switzerland came as a shock. 'It was very tiny, our house, and I had no room of my own, only a window which I could call mine. But I was so gloomy and unhappy in my soul after all those dreadful experiences that I was quite content just to sit at the window and quietly collect my thoughts and feelings' (Jawlensky, quoted in 'Memoir dictated to Lisa Kümmel, Wiesbaden, 1937', pp. 25-33 in M. Jawlensky, L. Pieroni-Jawlensky & A. Jawlensky, op. cit., p. 32).

Being uprooted so violently and suffering various family tragedies, Jawlensky found his art - which had reached an almost furious, burning vitality in its Expressionist manner - was no longer appropriate to his feelings. 'In the beginning at Saint-Prex I tried to continue painting as I had in Munich, but something inside me would not allow me to go on with those colourful, 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 colours to express what my soul felt. I began my so-called "Variations on a Landscape Theme", which was the view from my window - a couple of trees, a path, and the sky. I started trying to express through painting what I felt nature prompting me to say. By means of hard work and tremendous concentration I gradually found the right colours and form to express what my spiritual self demanded' (loc. cit.).

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