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Description: PROPERTY FROM A PRIVATE COLLECTION, EUROPE

1864-1941
LOLA

measurements
53 by 49cm.

alternate measurements
20 7/8 by 19 1/4 in.

Painted in 1912.

signed A. Jawlensky (lower left) and A.J. (lower right); signed and dated 1912 N. 12 on the reverse

oil on card laid down on panel

PROVENANCE

Estate of the artist
Private Collection, Europe

EXHIBITED

Wiesbaden, Neues Museum, Alexej von Jawlensky, 1954, no. 29, illustrated in colour in the catalogue
Basel, Galerie Beyeler, Alexej von Jawlensky, 1957, no. 32, illustrated in colour in the catalogue
Saarbrücken, Saarland-Museum, Zusatz-Blatt, 1957, no. 7
Hamburg, Kunsthalle, Alexej von Jawlensky, 1957, no. 51
Stuttgart, Württembergischer Kunstverein & Mannheim, Städtische Kunsthalle, Alexej von Jawlensky, 1958, no. 56
Munich, Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Alexej von Jawlensky, 1964, no. 68
New York, Leonard Hutton Galleries, German Expressionists, 1972-73, no. 22, illustrated in colour in the catalogue
Munich, Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus & Baden-Baden, Staatliche Kunsthalle, Alexej von Jawlensky, 1983, no. 115, illustrated in colour in the catalogue and on the cover
Dusseldorf, Wittrock Kunsthandel, Alexej von Jawlensky, 1986, no. 10, illustrated in colour in the catalogue
Lugano, Museo Cantonale d'Arte (on loan 1990-1997)
Madrid, Fundación Juan March & Barcelona, Museu Picasso, Alexej von Jawlensky, 1992, no. 48, illustrated in colour in the catalogue and on the cover
Lugano, Museo Cantonale d'Arte, Acquisizioni, Depositi, Donazioni, 1993-94
Frankfurt, Schirn Kunsthalle, Okkultismus und Avantgarde, 1995, no. 201, illustrated in colour in the catalogue
Dortmund, Museum am Ostwall, Alexej von Jawlensky. Reisen, Freunde, Wandlungen, 1998, illustrated in colour in the catalogue
Vienna, Arnold Schönberg, Kandinsky, Blauer Reiter und die Russische Avantgarde, 2000, no. 101, illustrated in colour in the catalogue
St. Petersburg, Russian State Museum, Alexej von Jawlensky, 2000
Genoa, Palazzo Ducale, Kandinsky, Vrubel, Jawlensky, 2001-02, no. 198, illustrated in colour in the catalogue
Lugano, Museo d'Arte Moderna, Passioni d'arte, 2002, illustrated in colour in the catalogue
Krems, Kunsthalle, Alexej von Jawlensky. Magische Bilder, 2003
Ludwigshafen, Wilhelm-Hack-Museum, Der Blaue Reiter, 2003-04, no. 14, illustrated in colour in the catalogue
Madrid, Fundación Juan March, Celebration of Art. A Half Century of the Fundación Juan March, 2005-06, no. 11, illustrated in colour in the catalogue

LITERATURE

Clemens Weiler, Alexej von Jawlensky. Der Maler und Mensch, Wiesbaden, 1955, illustrated in colour pl. III
Gerhard Händler, German Painting in our Time, Berlin, 1956, no. 66, illustrated
Clemens Weiler, Alexej Jawlensky, Cologne, 1959, no. 125, illustrated p. 235
Die Welt der Frau, April 1964, no. 4, illustrated in colour on the cover
Clemens Weiler, Alexej Jawlensky. Köpfe, Gesichte, Meditationen, Hanau, 1970, no. 93, illustrated in colour p. 31
Itzhak Goldberg, 'L'Icône abstraite dans les séries de Jawlensky', in Revue d'Histoire des Arts, no. 11, 1988, illustrated p. 85, fig. 2
Angelica Jawlensky, 'L'Ovale mistico', in FMR, Milan, February 1991, illustrated in colour p. 117
Maria Jawlensky, Lucia Pieroni-Jawlensky & Angelica Jawlensky, Alexej von Jawlensky. Catalogue Raisonné of the Oil Paintings, 1890-1914, London, 1991, vol. I, no. 446, illustrated in colour p. 344
Manuela Kahn-Rossi, Museo Cantonale d'Arte, Lugano, Lugano, 1994, illustrated in colour p. 70
Tayfun Belgin, 'Alexej von Jawlensky. Reisen, Freunde, Wandlungen', in Vernissage, September 1998, illustrated in colour p. 34 and on the cover
Tayfun Belgin, Alexej von Jawlensky. A Biography, St. Petersburg, 2000, illustrated in colour p. 91 and on the cover

NOTE

Throughout his career, Jawlensky often returned to the subject of the face as a means of exploring the range of human emotion. As the artist himself declared: 'human faces are for me only suggestions to see something else in them -- the life of colour, seized with a lover's passion' (quoted in Clemens Weiler, op. cit., 1971, p. 12). Executed in 1912, Lola is a bold Expressionist composition and a powerful example of the artist's rendering of this motif. The model is Helene Neznakomova (fig. 1), a Russian girl who worked as a housemaid of Alexej von Jawlensky and Marianne von Werefkin when they were living in Munich and Murnau. Jawlensky eventually started an affair with Helene, with whom he had a son Andreas born in 1902. Helene, Marianne von Werefkin and Jawlensky lived together in the same household until 1921 when Jawlensky officially separated from von Werefkin.

Lola reflects the many stylistic influences that shaped Jawlensky's art and contributed to the development of German Expressionist painting. Around the time he created this work, Jawlensky was living in Munich and worked closely with Kandinsky, who founded Der Blaue Reiter in 1912. Jawlensky's reliance upon colour as a means of visual expression derived from the examples of the Fauve painters working in France. Jawlensky first encountered with these artists, including Matisse and Van Dongen, shortly after the Fauves' seminal exhibition at the Salon d'Automne of 1905. He was inspired by their wild colouration and expressive brushwork, and between 1909 and 1911 the works of these artists had a profound impact on his painting. Like Matisse, who famously remarked: 'I used color as means of expressing my emotion and not as a transcription of nature', Jawlensky believed that colour communicated the complex emotions of his subjects (quoted in Jacqueline & Maurice Guillaud, Matisse: Rhythm and Line, New York, 1987, p. 24).

Volker Rattemeyer wrote about the influences of Fauve artists visible in Jawlensky's portraits executed around this time, including the present work: 'The manner in which the vivid colours and blue/black contours begin to focus on specific features -- eyes, nose and mouth -- seems to have been inspired by Van Dongen. In contrast to the overt sensuality of Van Dongen's female portraits, Jawlensky's are dominated by an introspective seriousness' (V. Rattemeyer, Alexej von Jawlensky (exhibition catalogue), Museum Boymans-van Beuningen, Rotterdam, 1994, p. 77). Indeed, with her large, wide open eyes, the woman in the present work has an introvert, inquisitive character. Portrayed frontally, she is looking straight ahead, capturing the viewer's attention with her dark almond-shaped eyes that appear to be the focal point of the composition.

Looking back at the pre-war years, the artist himself identified this phase in his career as crucial: 'I painted my finest [...] figure paintings in powerful, glowing colours and not at all naturalistic or objective. 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' (quoted in 'Memoir dictated to Lisa Kümmel, 1937', in M. Jawlensky, L. Pieroni-Jawlensky and A. Jawlensky, op. cit., p. 31). This range of vivid colours is present in Lola in the bright palette used to depict the woman's face, executed in a combination of vibrant blue, yellow and red tones. In a composition dominated by broad, free brushstrokes the woman's facial features, carefully contoured in black, stand out, emphasising the beauty of her lips, her elongated almond-shaped eyes and eyebrows.