Sale: 386 / Modern Art, Dec. 10. 2011 in Munich Lot 29

 
Alexej von Jawlensky - Landschaft Genfer See


29
Alexej von Jawlensky
Landschaft Genfer See, 1915.
Oil
Estimate:
€ 40,000 / $ 43,200
Sold:
€ 117,120 / $ 126,489

(incl. surcharge)
Oil on paper with embossed canvas, mounted on cardboard.
Jawlensky 660. Monogrammed lower left. Dedicated "An Frau Dr. Stegemann meinen Weihnachtsgruß, A. Jawlensky" on verso of firmly mounted strip of paper. Inscribed "Kleine Landschaft Genfer See. 1915 H.(Helene?) v. Jawlensky" by a hand other than that of the artist on another strip of paper. 26 x 37,5 cm (10,2 x 14,7 in). Backing cardboard: 27,5 x 39 cm (10,9 x 15,4 in).

PROVENANCE: Dr. Marga Stegemann, Dresden (early 1920s).
Dr. Ferdinand Ziersch, Wuppertal.
Dr. Georg Schäfer, Schweinfurt (with collection label on verso).
Lempertz, Cologne, auction 471, 1962, lot 285 (cat. with illu. plate 31).
Kornfeld & Klipstein, Bern, auction 110, 1963, lot 434 (cat. with illu. plate 52).
Roman Norbert Ketterer, Campione, 1966.
Galerie Resch, Gauting.
Christie's, London, 27 June, 1978, lot 2 (cat. with illu.).
Leonard Hutton Galleries, New York.

EXHIBITION: Meisterwerke des 20. Jahrhunderts, Galerie Wilhelm Grosshennig, Düsseldorf 1967, p. 6 (with illu.).
Erbslöh und sein Kreis, Galerie Aenne Abels, Cologne 1968, cat. no. 31 (with illu.).
Jawlensky & Mayor German Expressionists, Leonard Hutton Galleries, New York 1980/81, cat. no. 7 (with illu in colors p. 19) (with label on verso).

LITERATURE: Roman Norbert Ketterer, Moderne Kunst III, Campione 1966, cat. no. 64 (with illu. in colors p. 68).

Jawlensky only began his artistic training in 1889 as a student under Ilja Repin. Jawlensky accompanied these two to Munich In 1896 he moved to Munich where he attended a private art school. In summer 1908 he worked with Kandinsky, Marianne von Werefkin and Gabriele Münter in Murnau for the first time. There, the four artists developed the idea for the foundation of the 'Neue Künstlervereinigung München' to which they aligned with other artists in 1909. In December the first exhibition took place in Munich. Two years later the 'Blauer Reiter' was established as a new idea of co-operation. In 1913 Jawlensky participated in Herwarth Walden's first German autumn Salon in Berlin.

When in 1914 World War I began, Jawlensky was expelled from Germany due to his Russian citizenship. He moved with his family to Prex on Lake Geneva. The years there were of decisive importance for Jawlensky. The conditions constrictions and the trauma of displacement had left their traces in his artistic creation of these and the following years. The formats he worked on became smaller, Jawlensky was focused on just a few themes, among them the view from out of the window in his apartment onto the lake. In the following he made variations of the theme, subjecting it to unusual compositions in terms of form and color expression. This landscape, which complies with the surrounding situation, is one of the few made in landscape format. And yet, Jawlensky also employed unconventional means in its execution, at least as far as the colors are concerned: The mauve tones in the foreground, almost touching nuances of violet, are in contrast with cold tones of blue. The scant but poised application of paint is proof of an array of a visual virility that Jawlensky had adopted as his own. It finds particular expression in his ‘Meditations‘. In this composition it is less about a topographic preciseness, he rather sought to visualize an atmospheric value by means of which he can express his sensation, as it is so characteristic of his entire oeuvre of paintings.

A little later Jawlensky settled for good in Wiesbaden. In 1933 the National Socialists imposed an exhibition ban on him. In 1937 some 72 of his works were confiscated as "degenerate". Four years later, in 1941, Jawlensky died in Wiesbaden. [KD].




29
Alexej von Jawlensky
Landschaft Genfer See, 1915.
Oil
Estimate:
€ 40,000 / $ 43,200
Sold:
€ 117,120 / $ 126,489

(incl. surcharge)