Stillleben: Alpenveilchen erblühen. 1936.
Oil on paper with canvas structure, multiple laid on board.
Jawlensky/Pieroni-Jawlensky 1918. Barely legible monogram lower left and dated lower right. Verso signed, dated "IV 1936" and numbered "N 11" as well as twice titled by artist's son. 19 x 12,5 cm (7,4 x 4,9 in).

PROVENANCE: Helene von Jawlensky, Wiesbaden 1938.
Artist's estate.
Galerie Wilhelm Grosshenning, Düsseldorf 1972.
Private collection.

EXHIBITION: Deutsche und französische Meisterwerke des 20. Jahrhunderts, Galerie Wilhelm Grosshenning, Düsseldorf 1968/69, illu. in colors on p. 36.
Deutsche und französische Kunstwerke des 20. Jahrhunderts, Galerie Wilhelm Grosshenning, Düsseldorf 1970/71 and 1971/72, illu. in colors on p. 32.

Jawlensky only began his artistic training in 1889 in St. Petersburg after a career as an officer in the tsarist army. He studied under Ilja Repin who introduced him to Marianne von Werefkin and Helene Nesnakomoff, his later wife. Jawlensky accompanied these two to Munich in 1896 where they wanted to visit a private art school. Here Jawlensky met Wassily Kandinsky. The artist undertook several trips to France and was able to show ten paintings at the 'Salon d'automne' with the help of Sergej Djagilev. Jawlensky also met Henri Matisse for the first time. In summer 1908 he worked with Kandinsky, Marianne von Werefkin and Gabriele Münter in Murnau for the first time. There, the four artists developed the idea for the foundation of the 'Neue Künstlervereinigung München' to which they aligned with other artists. In December the first exhibition took place in Munich. Two years later the 'Blauer Reiter' was established as a new idea of co-operation. In 1913 Jawlensky participated in Herwarth Walden's first German autumn Salon in Berlin.

When in 1914 world war I began, Jawlensky was expelled from Germany due to his Russian citizenship. He moved with his family and Marianne von Werefkin to Prex on Lake Geneva. And remained in Switzerland until 1921, where he began painting his abstract heads in 1918. His final move to Wiesbaden took place in 1921. An attack of arthritis in 1929 forced the artist to visit various spas at regular intervals. Jawlensky suffered from a progressing paralysis and had difficulties in painting. One year later the painter began the series of small-format 'Meditationen'. At the beginning Jawlensky's style was influenced by the Fauves, particularly by Matisse, but the artist soon discovered his own, Expressionist style, which is characterised by strong colors and simple forms. Later he turned to those calm, spiritualised and mystical images of the Human face, which are so typical of Jawlensky.

In 1937 72 of his works were confiscated as "degenerate". Four years later, in 1941, Jawlensky died in Wiesbaden. [DB].