Name: Alexej von Jawlensky (1864-1941)
Brand: Grosse Meditation: Herr! Befiehl!
Price: 55000.00 GBP
Availability: SoldOut

Alexej von Jawlensky (1864-1941)
Grosse Meditation: Herr! Befiehl!
signed with the initials 'A.J.' (lower left); dated '36' (lower right); inscribed by Lisa Kümmel 'A.Jawlensky XI 1936 N. 30a' (on the reverse)
oil on canvas laid down on board
9 5/8 x 7 ¾ in. (24.4 x 19.6 cm.)
Painted in 1936

Maria Jawlensky, Locarno.
Leonard Hutton Galleries, New York, by whom acquired from the above in September 1996.
Anonymous sale, Hauswedell & Nolte, Hamburg, 9 June 2001, lot 1379.
Anonymous sale, Christie's, London, 23 June 2004, lot 173.
Acquired at the above sale by the present owner.

C. Weiler, Alexej Jawlensky - Heads, Faces, Meditations, New York, Praeger, 1971, no. 1026. p. 132.
M. Jawlensky, L. Pieroni-Jawlensky & A. Jawlensky, eds, Alexej von Jawlensky, Catalogue Raisonné of the Oil Paintings, Vol. III, 1934-1937, London, 1993, no. 2088, p. 325 (illustrated).

Dusseldorf, Kunsthalle, Bilder sind nicht verboten, August - October 1982, no. 89.
Wiesbaden, Museum Wiesbaden, Alexej von Jawlensky, May - August 1991, no. 176 (illustrated p. 279).
Zurich, Kunsthaus Kaufbeuren, Masken und Meditationen, May - July 1996, no. 71 (illustrated p. 71).
Palm Beach, Irving Galleries.
Zurich, Galerie Art Focus, Russische Kunst : von Alexej von Jawlensky bis Alexandra Exter, May - October 2003, no. 31 (illustrated p. 71).

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Lot Essay

'I had come to understand that great art can only be painted with religious feeling. And that, I could only bring to the human face' Alexej Jawlensky, letter to Pater Willibrord Verkade, Wiesbaden, 12 June 1938, quoted in M. Jawlensky, L. Peroni-Jawlensky & A. Jawlensky, eds, Alexej von Jawlensky: Catalogue raisonné of the Oil Paintings, Vol. I, 1890-1914, London, 1991, p. 34.

Painted in 1936, Grosse Meditation: Herr! Befiehl! is an example of Jawlensky's series of 'Abstract Heads' which he began a few years after the end of the First World War, and which occupied him throughout the 1920s and 1930s. These simplified, frontal faces are characterised by a consistent compositional design which retains the main structure of the head while translating features such as the closed eyes and thin mouth into geometric planes.

Jawlensky found that the act of creating a work of art took on a mystical power of its own. Painting became a ritual for him. Discussing his use of the face to undertake his personal examinations of the spiritual, Jawlensky explained that, 'I found it necessary to find form for the face, because I had come to understand that great art can only be painted with religious feeling. And that I could only bring to the human face. I understood that the artist must express through his art, in forms and colors, the divine inside him. Therefore a work of art is God made visible, and art is a 'longing for God.' I have painted 'Faces' for many years. I sat in my studio and painted, and did not need Nature as a prompter. I only had to immerse myself in myself, pray, and prepare my soul to a state of religious awareness... They are technically very perfect, and radiate spirituality' (letter to Pater Willlibrord Verkade, Wiesbaden, 12 June 1938, quoted in M. Jawlensky, L. Pieroni-Jawlensky and A. Jawlensky, op. cit., 1991, Vol. I, p. 34).

The innovation of Jawlensky’s philosophy and techniques during this period attracted him a strong and extremely devoted following. Through the encouragement of his friends Feininger, Klee and Kandinsky they formed the ‘Blue Four’ group.