Alexej von Jawlensky

Alexej Georgewitsch von Jawlensky (March 13, 1864 – March 15, 1941) was a Russian Expressionist painter active in Germany, Munich in the 'Blaue Reiter / Blue Rider' and after 1914 in Switzerland, together with Marianne von Werefkin, many years his life-companion, till 1921.

1900s

 * ..I did a great deal of work [in 1903, Normandy]. And I understood how to transfer nature into colors appropriate to the odor of my soul. I painted a large number of landscapes there, bushes and Breton heads from my window. The pictures were glowing with color. And my inner self was contended.
 * Quote of Jawlensky, c. 1903; as cited by, in Expressionism; Praeger Publishers, New York, 1973, p. 114


 * My friends, the apples that I love for their delightful red, yellow, mauve and green clothing cease to be apples for me when I see them against this or that background, in such or such surroundings.. .And they resound in my sight like a music, reproducing this or that mood of my soul, this or that fleeting contact with the soul of things.. .To reproduce the things which exist without being, to reveal them to other people, by passing them through my sympathetic understanding, by revealing them in the passion I feel for hem, that is the goal of my artistic existence. To me apples, trees, human faces are not more than hints as to what else I should seen in them: the life of colour, comprehended by a passionate lover.
 * Quote of Jawlensky, c. 1903; as cited by, in Expressionism; Praeger Publishers, New York, 1973, p. 115


 * The whole of French art is a matter of seeing Nature as beautiful, very beautiful, in fact. But on the whole this is not enough. You have to create your own Nature – Van Gogh!
 * In: Expressionism: A Revolution in German Art, Dietmer Elger, Taschen, 2002, p. 166
 * Jawlensky is looking back on his encounter with French art through his voyage with Marianne Werefkin to Normandy and Paris, in 1903 when he discovered Van Gogh


 * My paintings [c. 1907] were aglow with colors and so my soul was contended with them.
 * In: Expressionism: A Revolution in German Art, Dietmer Elger, Taschen, 2002, p. 166

1910s

 * His pictures [of Nolde, which Jawlensky met in 1912] remind me of my own in the strength of their expression. I have a passionate love for Nolde and his art.
 * quote of Jawlensky, 1912; as quoted by, in Expressionism; Praeger Publishers, New York, 1973, p. 118


 * I am now mainly painting faces and landscapes; I am obsessed day and night by the vision of faces and colours. And the spiritual vision is my mystical world.
 * Quote of Jawlensky from a letter to his brother Dimitri, c. 1917/18; as cited in Alexej von Jawlensky, Museum Boymans-van-Beuningen, Rotterdam; exhibition catalog 25/9 – 27/11-1994, p. 150


 * ..human faces are for me only suggestions to see something else in them – the life of colour, seized with a lover's passion.
 * Quote of Jawlensky from a letter to his brother Dimitri, circa 1917/18; as cited in Clemens Weiler, op. cit., 1971, p. 12


 * This Spring of 1911 Marianne von Werefkin [his former study-mate in Russia and in fact his life-comapnion for many years, but never married] Andrei, Helene and I went to Prerow on the Baltic [coast]. For me that summer meant a great step forward in my art. I painted my finest landscapes there as well as large 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. 'Der Buckel', 'Violetter Turban', 'Selbstporträt'..  ..were created in this way. It was a turning-point in my art. It was in these years, up to 1914, just before the war [World War 1.], that I painted my most powerful works, referred to as the pré-war works.
 * Quote c. 1911; in 'Lebenserinnerungen', 1938; as cited in Alexej von Jawlensky, Museum Boymans-van-Beuningen, Rotterdam; exhibition catalog 25/9 – 27/11-1994 (a. o. his life quotes from ['Life Memories'] he dictated late in his life, in 1938)

1930s

 * This acquaintance [with Marianne Werefkin ] would change my life. I became a friend of hers, of this clever woman gifted with genius.
 * from his memoirs, 1936/41: in Lebenserinnerungen (Memories), Alexej Jawlensky - Köpfe-GesichteMeditationen (Heads-Faces-Meditations), ed. Clemens Weiler (Hanau: H. Peters, 1970), p. 106


 * We had a very lovely place [in Ascona with his life-companion Marianne Werefkin ] with a garden directly on the lake. It was on the edge of Ascona. Next to it began the Campagna [landscape], and this Campagna was enchantingly beautiful, like a dream.
 * quote from Jawlensky's memoirs, 1936/41: Lebenserinnerungen (Memories) p. 119; as cited in Exile, the Avant-Garde, and Dada: Women Artists Active in Switzerland during the First World War, by Isabel Wünsche, p. 66
 * Jawlensky was very pleased with this move from Zurich to Ascona; Werefkin arranged this family's move after Jawlensky fell gravely ill with the Spanish flu. A few years later Jawlensky would leave here.


 * Perhaps you have heard that Baroness Werefkin died in February. It was a great blow to me. Yes, indeed, sooner or later we have to pay for our mistakes once made. And often so severely.
 * Quote of Jawlensky's letter, 12 June, 1938 to P. Willibrord Verkade, as cited in Leben und Werk, 1860- 1938, Bernd Fäthke, Prestel Verlag, 1980, ISBN 9783791308869, as cited on on the website Fembio, by Luise F. Pusch - transl. Joey Horsley, p. 19


 * I now began to search for a new path in art [from 1914, with the outbreak of World War 1.]. It was a major task. I understood that I did not have to paint what I saw, not even what I felt, but only that which lived within me, in my soul. To put it in symbolic terms, it is like this: I felt within myself, within my breast, the keyboard of an organ and I had to make it resonate. And the nature that was in front of me served me only as a prompter. And that was a key that unlocked this organ and made it resonate. In the beginning it was very difficult. But little by little, it became easy for me to use colours and forms to find what was within my soul.
 * In his letter, 12 June, 1938 to P. Willibrord Verkade, as quoted in Alexej von Jawlensky, der Maler und Mensch, Clemens Weiler; Wiesbaden 1955, pp. 39 ff


 * I painted these 'Variations' [of landscapes] for some years and then 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 colours, the divine in him. Therefore a work of art is God made visible and art is 'a longing for God'. I painted 'faces' for many years. I sat in my studio and painted, and I did not need nature to prompt me. It was enough for me to immerse myself in myself, to pray and prepare my soul to attain a religious state..
 * In a letter to the Dutch Fauvist painter Father Verkade, 12 June 1938; as quoted in Alexej Jawlensky, Jürgen Schultze; M. DuMont Schauberg, Cologne 1970, p. 39


 * So the years passed and I worked a great deal. And then I became ill and although I could still work, despite the fact that my hands became more and more rigid. I could no longer pick up the paintbrush and had to use both hands to do so, always with a great deal of pain. The format of my works became very small, and I also had to find a new technique. For three years I painted these small heads like a man possessed. Then I realized that I would soon have to stop working entirely: and that's what happened, too!
 * In a letter to the Dutch Fauvist painter Father Verkade, 12 June 1938; as quoted in Alexej Jawlensky, Jürgen Schultze; M. DuMont Schauberg, Cologne 1970, p. 54

'Life Memories' (1938)
Alexej von Jawlensky, Museum Boymans-van-Beuningen, Rotterdam; exhibition catalog 25/9 – 27/11-1994 (a. o. from 'Lebenserinnerungen' ['Life Memories'] which Jawlensky dictated late in his life, in 1938 )


 * I was taken to see the World Exhibition in Moscow [in 1880]. I found it all very boring. But when I came to a section devoted to art – there were only paintings, and this was the first time of my life [Jawlensky was 16 years old] I had seen paintings – I was so deeply affected that it was a case of Saul becoming Paul. It was the turning point of my life. Even since then art has been my ideal, my holy of holiest, that for which my entire soul and my entire self yearn.
 * p. 20
 * from: 'Lebenserinnerungen', 1938


 * From then on [1880] I used to go to the Tretyakov Gallery [in Moscow] every Sunday, arriving very early and staying there without eating until closing time at three o'clock. It was a tremendous experience for me, like going to church. Indeed, I felt as if I were in a temple.
 * p.274
 * from: his Memories, in 'Catalogue Raisonné of the oil Paintings', ed. Maria Jawlensky, Angelica Jawlensky and Lucia Pieroni-Jawlensky; published resp. in 1991, 1992, 1993


 * Since 1929 I have suffered from an extremely painful disease [arthritis deformans] which gets worse every year. Little by little my arms and hands have become stiff and bent and I have terrible pain. This stiffness in my elbows and wrists has tremendously hindered my painting and I have had to find a new technique. My art in the last period has all been in small format, but my paintings have become even deeper and more spiritual..
 * p. 23
 * from: 'Lebenserinnerungen', 1938


 * Every artist works within a tradition. I am a native of Russia. My Russian soul has always been close to the art of old Russia, the Russian icons, Byzantine art, the mosaics in Ravenna, Venice, Rome, and to Romanesque art. All these artworks produced a religious vibration in my soul, as I sensed in them a deep spiritual language. This art was my tradition.
 * p. 24
 * quote from his letter to the National Socialist State Cultural administration, 1939; Jawlensky asked permission to exhibit his painting art, which was turned down by the Nazi regime


 * At first I intended to carry on working in Saint-Prex [in Switzerland, circa 1914 – 1915] in the same way I had been working in Munich [the location of his Blaue Reiter / Blue Rider period]. But something inside me prevented me from painting colourful, sensuous pictures. Suffering had changed my soul, telling me to find other forms and colours to express what was on my mind.
 * p. 149
 * from: 'Köpfe, Gesichte, Meditationen', Clemens Weiler


 * I knew that I must paint not what I saw, but only what was in me, in my soul. Figuratively speaking, it was like this: In my heart I felt as if there were an organ, which I had to sound. And nature, which I saw before me, only prompted me. And that was a key that unlocked this organ and made it sound.. .They are songs without words.
 * p. 186
 * from: 'Lebenserinnerungen', 1938


 * I sat in my studio and painted, and did not need Nature as a prompter [is after 1921, when he painted the series 'Abstrakter Kopf' / 'Abstract Head'.] I only had to immerse myself in myself, pray, and prepare my soul to a state of religious awareness. I painted many, many 'Faces'.
 * p. 186
 * from: 'Lebenserinnerungen', 1938


 * It was very tiny, our house [ St. Prex ], and I had no room for my own, only a window, which I could call mine. But I was so gloomy and unhappy in my soul after all those dreadful experiences, that I was quite content to sit at the window and quietly collect my thoughts and feelings. I had a bit of paint but no easel, so I went into Lausanne – twenty minutes on the train – and bought a small easel from a photographer.. .It was highly unsuitable for painting but for more than twenty years I have painted my best work on that little easel [in mainly small sizes].
 * p. 186
 * from: 'Lebenserinnerungen', 1938
 * This small house was in St. Prex, in Switzerland, lake Genova, where Jawlensky concentrated himself on the view around his house in the years after 1914.. ..he painted here more than 400 'Variations on a landscape theme', in St. Prex


 * My art in the last period has all been in small format, but my paintings have become even deeper and more spiritual, speaking purely through colour.. .And now I leave these small – but to me – important works to the future and to the people who love art.
 * p. 249
 * from: 'Lebenserinnerungen', 1938 - after 1937 Jawlensky couldn't paint any longer because of severe arthritis


 * When we had been in Ashenstovo [1873, located near the Prussian border]] a few days my mother took us children to see a famous Polish church, Kostjol, famous for its miraculous Madonna icon. This icon had three precious coats, one of gold, one of coral and one with pearls and diamonds..  .Many peasant men and women were were lying prostrate on the floor as if crucified, with their arms outstretched. It was very quiet. Suddenly a great blare of trumpets shattered the silence. Terribly frightened I saw the gold curtain open and the Madonna appear wearing a gold robe.
 * p.274
 * from his 'Memories', in 'Catalogue Raisonné of the oil Paintings', ed. Maria Jawlensky, Angelica Jawlensky and Lucia Pieroni-Jawlensky; published resp. in 1991, 1992, 1993

Quotes about Alexej von Jawlensky

 * (Ich kann nicht Deutsch schreiben oder sprechen)... I can't speak or write German, but I'am overjoyed because I have bought one of your pictures. Now it is in me. I write music. You are my teacher.
 * John Cage, in a letter, early February 1935; as cited in 'The shape of the Future 3: Art'; in: Where the Heart Beats: John Cage, Zen Buddhism, and the Inner Life of Artists, Kay Larson, Penguin 2012, p. unknown
 * Cage bought one of the small 'Head' paintings of Jawlensky via his art-agent in the U.S. Galka E. Scheyer who showed him some paintings of Jawlensky, early 1935. She sold Cage's choice very cheap for 25 dollars. He was 25 years old and strongly inspired by images, as he told Scheyer and wrote Jawlensky


 * Frankly, I think there is something wrong with Jawlensky's dots [in his paintings, then]. Anybody can pick up that style if they want to.
 * Wassily Kandinsky, c 1903; as cited by, in Expressionism; Praeger Publishers, New York, 1973, p. 114


 * Although Marianne von Werefkin remained active in the avant-garde art community [in Munich], she took a ten-year hiatus from painting between 1896 and 1906. The break in artistic production has been traditionally attributed to the attention she gave to advancing Jawlensky's career, but it is also apparent that she needed the time to develop a new artistic language, as she moved away from the Realist style which had dominated her work in Russia.
 * Adrienne Kochmann, in Ambiguity of Home: Identity and Reminiscence in Marianne Werefkin's Return Home, c. 1909;


 * They [ Kandinsky, Jawlensky and Klee, in their Der Blaue Reiter-period till 1914] were constantly arguing about art and each of them, at first, had his own ideas and his own style. Jawlensky was far less intellectual than Kandinsky or Klee and was often frankly puzzled by their theories. My 1908 portrait entitled 'Zuhören' ['Listening'] actually represents Jawlensky, with an expression of puzzled astonishment on his chubby face, listening to Kandinsky’s new theories of art.
 * Gabriele Münter in a late interview 1958; as cited in Dialogues – conversations with European Artists at Mid-century, Edouard Roditi, Lund Humphries Publishers Ltd, London, 1990, p. 117


 * ..we parted in 1914, when Kandinsky, being an enemy alien [because of the outbreak of World War 1. - he had a Russian nationality], had to flee from Germany to Switzerland, as did Jawlensky and Marianne von Werefkin too [Switzerland].. ..Ever since we parted in 1914, I have worked mainly by myself. After the First World War, here in Munich, we found that our Blue Rider group had broken up. Marc and Macke had both been killed [World War 1.], Kandinsky, Jawlensky and Marianne were no longer here..
 * Gabriele Münter in a late interview, 1958; as quoted in 'Dialogues – conversations with European Artists at Mid-century' Edouard Roditi, Lund Humphries Publishers Ltd, London, 1990, p. 121


 * Yes, we [= Marianne von Werefkin and Gabriele Münter shared very much the same tastes and ideas, when we lived together in this house (the 'Russian house' in Murnau]. She was extremely perceptive and intelligent, but Jawlensky (Marianne's husband', but not married] didn't always approve of her work.. .Suddenly Jawlensky would pick on some tiny detail of one of Marianne’s best and most original pictures and exclaim: 'That patch of color, there, is laid on much too flat and smoothly. It's just like old Riepin [Russian painter Ilya Repin], and former art teacher of them both]. Of course it was nonsense and he was only saying it to annoy her. But Jawlensky really was a devotee of the 'touche de peinture' of the French [[Fauvism|Fauvists, rather than an innovator - a believer in a new kind of art of the future.
 * Gabriele Münter in a late interview 1958; as quoted in 'Dialogues – conversations with European Artists at Mid-century' Edouard Roditi, Lund Humphries Publishers Ltd, London, 1990, p. 118-119


 * 'You are' the painter of the human soul. I know of no other modern painter of the human soul.
 * Galka E. Scheyer, in a letter to Jawlensky after 1927; as cited from the 'Introduction' of 'Memories of my sick hands' Zeidler Zeidler H. Rheumatol. 2011 Jun;70(4):336-57 H. Rheumatol. 2011 Jun;70(4):336-57
 * Galka E. Scheyer promoted Jawlensky's art; later she became in the U.S. an important art-agent for more Blaue Reiter-artists


 * I shall never forget those inspiring days when you initiated me into the sacred world of art. I shall never forget you really did make me what I am today.
 * Galka E. Scheyer, in her letter from the U.S., 13 July, 1936; in Wünsche, p. 63; as cited by Darcy Tell in 'The Art Lover: Galka Scheyer's Higher Calling', 2 Dec. 2010,


 * When people.. ..look into their souls, your work [will] be prophetic for them..  ..since life works from the inner to the outer and not the other way around.
 * Galka E. Scheyer in a letter to Jawlensky, 1940; as quoted in 'The Art Lover: Galka Scheyer's Higher Calling', by Darcy Tell


 * For four years already we sleep together. I remained a virgin, he [Jawlensky] became a virgin again. Between us sleeps our child - Art. It is the child who ensures our undisturbed sleep. Carnal desire has never once befouled our bed. We both want to remain unsullied, so that not a single impure thought could ever disturb the calm of our nights when we are so close to each other. And yet we love each other. Since we exchanged declarations of love many years ago we have not kissed once even for form's sake. He is everything for me, I love him as a mother, especially as a mother, as a friend, a sister, a wife, I love him as an artist and a friend. I am not his mistress and my tenderness has never had a passionate turn. Because of his love for me, he became a monk. He loves in me his art, and without me he'll die — and he has never enjoyed me as a woman.
 * Marianne Werefkin, late 1880's; as cited in Lettres a un inconnu: Aux sources de l'expressionnisme, ed. Gabrielle Dufour-Kowalska. Klincksieck, 1999. pp. 75-77 (Notebook I, pp. 29-30)


 * Three years [c. 1892-1895] passed in indefatigable care of his [Jawlensky's] mind and heart. Everything, everything that he received from me I pretended to take – everything that I poured into him I pretended to receive … so that he wouldn't feel jealous as an artist, I hid my art from him.
 * Marianne Werefkin, 1890's; as cited in Leben und Werk, 1860 - 1938, Bernd Fäthke, Prestel Verlag, 1980, ISBN 9783791308869; as quoted in 'BIOGRAPHY, Marianne Werefkin' website Fembio, by Luise F. Pusch; transl. Joey Horsley


 * Here on our peninsula of Darss, we [ Marianne Werefkin and Jawlensky] still feel like we're on an expedition in search of provisions and artistic inspiration. Neither is to be found here. But there is an endless and splendid beach, delightful air, a sense of unlimited informality and weather unknown to us from our dear Bavaria: no thunderstorms, no steady rains, no cloudbursts. If Helen [the maid] can find the genius to cook something out of nothing, and we [Jawlensky and Marianne] to paint from nothing - then Prerow won't be half bad, provided that all remain healthy.
 * Marianne Werefkin, in her letter to Franz and Maria Marc, from OstSeebad Prerov, Baltic Sea, to Munich, 1911; as cited in Marianne Werefkin in Prerow, 1911: The Periphery as Focus, on the website Fembio, by Kornelia Röder and Antonia Napp - p. 45
 * This 'break' from Munich at the Baltic sea meant for both painters an important period with strong later consequences in their painting-styles


 * We [Marianne and Jawlensky] are living out in the country, in a house so small, that one can hardly turn around. Despite all we work both, since we have our colors and paint again.
 * Marianne Werefkin, in her letter to Herwarth Walden, from St Prex, Switzerland, May 28, 1915; Sturm-Archiv, Staatsbibliothek Berlin; as cited in Exile, the Avant-Garde, and Dada: Women Artists Active in Switzerland during the First World War, by Isabel Wünsche, p. 49
 * Marianne Werefkin and Alexei Jawlensky, (living together in Munich till 1914), were classified as enemy aliens (both had the Russian nationality) and forced to leave Germany immediately at the outbreak of the World War I. They were able to rent a small apartment in St. Prex in Switzerland, a small fishermen's village on Lake Geneva


 * Why do you [= Marianne von Werefkin, herself] no longer work? Why work again? Faith has left me – the habit of putting myself into the background, has done the rest. Am I a true artist? Yes, yes, yes. Am I a woman? Alas. Yes, yes, yes. Are the two [Jawlensky and she] able to work as a pair? No, no, no. Who will take up the desires -?.. .The work of my life, this talent [her love Jawlensky] that I protect with all my interest, with all my affection, it must be alone in the dwelling. Reason says, calm yourself. But the great passion in me, and my call to work, destroys all the calm acquisitions of my life.
 * Marianne von Werefkin, in her writings 'Lettres à un Inconnu, 1901 – 1905', Vol 1 'My beautiful One, My Unique!', Marianne von Werefkin, Museo Communale, Ascona; as quoted in Voicing our visions, - Writings by women artists, ed. by Mara R. Witzling, Universe New York, 1991, p. 132


 * Oh 'my dear friend' [Jawlensky / 'The Unknown', in her Letters], you whose voice called me towards my beautiful past, oh how I love you because you are young, you serve the idea, you understand the beauty of a life devoted completely to abstraction. Oh the devil you have done me, and the good of this devil. There is an atrocious page in my existence.. .I am not a woman. Neither love nor the family satisfies me. I don't like the baby. I detest the household. I love all works of the human genius, I adore art the beauties of nature and of the heart. The beautiful, the beautiful in all such as love and such as life.
 * Marianne von Werefkin, in her writings Lettres à un Inconnu, 1901 – 1905, Vol 1 'My beautiful One, My Unique!', Marianne von Werefkin, Museo Communale, Ascona; as quoted in "Voicing our visions, -Writings by women artists", ed. by Mara R. Witzling, Universe New York, 1991, p. 132