In the Meditations, Jawlensky advanced towards the worlds of consciousness that he assumed were hidden beneath actual faces. In the formal abstraction to which Jawlensky subjected the human face, he groped step by step towards knowledge that was supposed to transcend the image as such. A process deriving from his own state of mind induced Jawlensky to devote himself so extensively to this theme. He did so with his own peculiar fervour that was so consistent that it virtually amounted to an observance of cultic rites. The infinite variations on this particular astringent composition, which actually does not permit of variation in the conventional sense of the term, attests to Jawlensky’s incessant striving to attain the perfect, inner image that in its latent statement competes with the image realised.