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Artist or Maker: Alexej von Jawlensky (1864-1941)

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Provenance: Dr Max Kugel, Wiesbaden.
Magdalena Kugel, Wiesbaden.
The Kugel Estate, Dusseldorf.
Siegfried Adler, Montagnola.
Galerie Thomas, Munich.
Private collection, Germany; sale, Christie's, London, 11 October 2001, lot 28.
Acquired at the above sale by the present owner.

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Exhibited: Wiesbaden, Neues Museum, Alexej Jawlensky, September - October 1954, no. 32.
Berne, Kunsthalle, Alexej Jawlensky, May - June 1957, no. 40; this exhibition later travelled to Saarbrucken, Saarlandmuseum, July - August 1957.
Bremen, Kunsthalle, Alexej von Jawlensky, December 1957 - January 1958, no. 53.
Munich, Galerie Thomas, Die ersten 15 Jahre. Jubiläumsausstellung, February - March 1981 (illustrated).
Heidelberg, Kunstverein, Blau: Farbe der Ferne, March - May 1990 (illustrated in colour p. 401).

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Literature: C. Weiler, Alexej von Jawlensky. Der Maler und Mensch, Wiesbaden, 1955, no. 20 (illustrated).
C. Weiler, Alexej Jawlensky, Cologne, 1959, no. 139 (illustrated p. 237).
C. Weiler, Alexej Jawlensky. Köpfe, Gesichte, Meditationen, Hanau, 1970, no. 126.
M. Jawlensky, L. Pieroni-Jawlensky & A. Jawlensky, Alexej von Jawlensky, Catalogue raisonné of the Oil Paintings, vol. I, 1890-1914, London, 1991, no. 474 (illustrated in colour p. 377; the verso illustrated p. 365).

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Notes: THE PROPERTY OF A GENTLEMAN

Jawlensky painted this powerful Expressionist portrait of his partner Helene Neznakomova in 1912. He had met her when she was fourteen years old at the home of their mutual friend, Marianne von Werefkin, Jawlensky's great mentor and sponsor. Helene was Werefkin's protegée, being introduced to the ways of society and the aristocracy, and accompanied Werefkin and Jawlensky when they moved to Munich in 1896. Six years later, in 1902, Helene gave birth to Jawlensky's son Andreas, and the couple wed twenty years afterwards, following Jawlensky's decisive rupture with Werefkin.

There has been much speculation about the nature of this ménage à trois, which remained intact for over two decades. What is beyond doubt is Helene's importance in Jawlensky's life, be it as the model for many of his greatest and most experimental paintings, as his partner, as the mother of his son, or as his companion and provider of care in his later years.

Jawlensky captures his extreme feelings for Helene through his bold colours, each field thrust forward by its strong outline, resembling the leading of stained-glass. 'I painted... large figure paintings in powerful, glowing colours not at all naturalistic or objective', Jawlensky remarked of this period. 'I used a great deal of red, blue, orange, cadmium yellow and chromium-oxide green. My forms were very strongly contoured in Prussian blue and came with tremendous power from an inner ecstasy... It was a turning-point in my art. It was in these years, up to 1914 just before the war, that I painted my most powerful works' (quoted in 'Memoir dictated to Lisa Kümmel, Wiesbaden, 1937', in M. Jawlensky, L. Pieroni-Jawlensky & A. Jawlensky, op. cit., p. 31).

1912 marked the apogee of Jawlensky's Expressionism. With the outbreak of war and his exile to Switzerland, his art took a more contemplative, muted character as the act of painting became a source of solace and meditation to him. Before the war, however, it was more of a catharsis, an outpouring of emotion. In Dunkle Augen, Jawlensky presented his favourite subject matter, the female head, when his powers of Expressionism were at their peak. It is impossible not to be swept along by the momentum of the raw colours, the reds and greens of Helene's face.

The strength of Jawlensky's pre-war paintings, of which he himself was so proud, was largely a result of various contemporary events in his life. The previous year, he had once again seen Henri Matisse in France. His earlier meeting with Matisse had been one of the most formative influences in his adoption of the Fauve palette, and this 1911 meeting reinforced the Frenchman's influence in his art. Even the reduced form of the head is reminiscent of some of Matisse's works. Although the two separate elements of colour and form seem in some way similar to Matisse's art, the combination is uniquely Jawlensky's, especially the composition - the tight close-up of the face reminiscent of the Russian icons he loved so much.

Matisse was not the only influence on Jawlensky's art at the time - it was in 1912 that he met two fellow proponents of Expressionism, Paul Klee and Emil Nolde. The former joined Jawlensky as one of the exhibitors with the Blaue Reiter ('Blue Rider') group. This had been founded by Wassily Kandinsky and Franz Marc after their departure from the Neue Künstlervereinigung Munich ('New Munich Artists' Union') that the former had helped found with Jawlensky. This grouping of like-minded artists gave each the confidence to break free of any remaining constraints of conservatism; this freedom is reflected in this forceful and unconventional portrait.

Dunkle Augen once formed part of the collection of Dr Max Kugel, a discerning collector who possessed a comprehensive selection of Jawlensky's works, from the early years until the the very end. Dunkle Augen, which made an impressive pair with Jawlensky's Selbstbildnis ('Self-portrait'), executed in the same year, was one of the major highlights of this prestigious collection.

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