Meditation. 1935.
Oil on paper, laid on cardboard.
Jawlensky 1756 (with illu. in colors on p. 188). Monogrammed lower left, dated lower right. Verso of backing cardboard signed and dated as well as inscribed "XI N5" and dedicated "Für Adga Holst zur Erinnerung und mit innigster Verehrung. A. Jawlensky". 19,4 x 15,1 cm (7,6 x 5,9 in). Backing: 20,5 x 16,1 cm (8 x 6,4 in).
The Swedish painter Agda Holst (1886-1976) met Jawlensky in the studio of Kees van Dongen in Paris in 1911. Little is known about their friendship. However, the dedication on this work lets one assume that these two artists had a special relationship.

PROVENANCE: Agda Holst, Sweden.
Karin Stattin, Prästmon.
Bukowskis, Stockholm, 28 - 30 November, 1989, lot 154.
Villa Grisebach Auctions, Berlin, 13th auction, 1 June, 1990, lot 41.
Private collection Berlin.
Private collection Southern Germany (acquired from Galerie Heseler, Munich).
Private collection Spain.

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 'Meditations'.

The large number of meditations proves how much a heart matter they were to Jawlensky. In ever new variations Jawlensky sought to approach an image that he latently carried within him. Originally based on portraits, he created a series of strikingly reduced forms, something eternal and indestructible that made for the fundament of all later meditations. The painting process is perceived as a pseudo-sacral act, as essence of which Jawlensky incorporated – comparable with, for instance the process of making Chinese India ink drawings, that can also be seen as the spontaneously rendered result of long accumulated optical impressions.

72 of his works were confiscated in 1937 as "degenerate". Three years later in 1941 Jawlensky died in Wiesbaden. [KD].