Alexej Jawlensky: Blick auf Murnau

Alexej Jawlensky: Blick auf Murnau
JAWLENSKY, ALEXEJ
1867 Twer/Moscow - 1941 Wiesbaden

Title: Blick auf Murnau.
Date: Ca. 1908.
Technique: Oil on cardboard.
Mounting: Laid down on canvas.
Measurement: 27,5 x 35,5cm.
Notation: Signed lower left: Jawlensky.
Frame/Pedestal: Craftman's frame.

The painting was originally painted on both sides and was separated in 1977. The other side is cat. rais. No. 146, which depicts a landscape in Wasserburg.

Provenance:
- Artist's studio
- Adolf Frank, Braunschweig (1921, directly from the artist)
- Gustav Forstenzer, Braunschweig/New York (1924 through inheritance from the previous owner)
- Serge Sabarsky Gallery, New York (1981)
- Private collection, South America/Germany (1982 acquired from the previous owner)

Literature:
- Jawlensky, Maria/Pieroni-Jawlensky, Lucia/Jawlensky, Angelica: Alexej von Jawlensky - Catalogue Raisonné of the Oil Paintings, Vol. One, 1890-1914, Munich 1991, cat. rais. no. 215

- One of the first Murnau paintings, filled with a glowing, colour-intensive evening atmosphere
- A key work in Alexej von Jawlensky's transition to expressionist art
- The painting documents a special moment in German art history


From the academy to the avant-garde
The discovery of fine art became a revelatory experience for the young Alexej von Jawlensky – a turning point in the life of a young man who, in Tsarist Russia, had been destined by his family for a military career. Today, Jawlensky is regarded as a leading representative of German Expressionism and one of the most influential figures in international art history. The co-founder and spiritual pioneer of Der Blaue Reiter lent modern art a new, spiritually imbued expressiveness in his portraits, landscapes and still lifes, which reached its zenith in the meditative imagery of the icon-like heads in his late work.

After a solid education at the Academy of Arts in Saint Petersburg, Jawlensky moved to Munich in 1896 with his colleague and patron Marianne von Werefkin – at that time a stronghold of Art Nouveau and a vibrant centre of avant-garde movements. In his passionate struggle for a new, authentic visual language, he found a close friend and companion in Wassily Kandinsky. Extended stays in France between 1903 and 1907 brought Jawlensky into contact with the flamboyant colours of Vincent van Gogh, the symbolic power of Paul Gauguin's paintings and the bold formal language of the Fauves around Henri Matisse. These experiences gave his painting decisive impetus.

Murnau as a gateway to new art
In the summer of 1908, a legendary collaboration between Alexej von Jawlensky, Marianne von Werefkin, Wassily Kandinsky and Gabriele Münter took place in Murnau am Staffelsee – a place that Jawlensky and Werefkin had discovered in the autumn of 1907 on their wanderings through the Upper Bavarian Alpine foothills. Here, the artist finally broke away from lifelike representation and made colour the vehicle for emotional expression. The paintings created in Murnau combine the external landscape with an inner vision, marking the decisive step from Neo-Impressionism to Expressionism. From then on, the visible world was merely an occasion for Jawlensky to shape the invisible and give voice to the soul in expressive, elemental colour compositions.
The painting "Blick auf Murnau" (View of Murnau) captures the special atmosphere of the Bavarian Alpine foothills in powerful colours and clearly structured forms. Above the red roofs of the village, the slender spire of St. Martin's Church rises as a silent point of orientation in the pictorial space. Jawlensky renders the scenery in generous, summary surfaces and a delicate colourism: the landscape, village and sky are structured into luminous zones enclosed by dark contours, following the example of the cloisonné technique of the French Nabis. Spatial depth gives way to an almost ornamental flatness. The contrast between warm reds and cool blues and greens heightens the emotional impact. The glow of the roofs and the mysterious violet of the sky lend the work an almost sacred, contemplative mood.

Thus, "Blick auf Murnau" becomes a key work in the transition from Impressionist vision to Expressionist sensibility – an impressive example of Jawlensky’s search for the spiritual in art.
Doris Hansmann


Estimated shipping costs for this lot:
Arrangement after the auction.



Explanations to the Catalogue

Alexej Jawlensky
Russia
Modern Art
1900s
Craftman's frame
Landscape
Works on paper
Oil
Village