Sale: 449 / Modern Art I, June 10. 2017 in Munich Lot 261

 

261
Alexej von Jawlensky
Große Meditation (Juli 1936 N. 2), 1936.
Oil
Estimate:
€ 60,000 / $ 64,800
Sold:
€ 120,000 / $ 129,600

(incl. surcharge)
Große Meditation (Juli 1936 N. 2). 1936.
Oil on structured paper, on board.
Jawlensky/Pieroni-Jawlensky 2023. Lower left monogrammed. Lower right dated. Inscribed "VII 1936 N.2" on backing board. Verso of backing board once more signed, dated and inscribed, there also with hand-written ownership entry. 25.4 x 17.2 cm (10 x 6.7 in), the full sheet. Backing board: 39,8 x 32 cm (15,7 x 11,6 in).

Meditation in dark and glowing colors.

PROVENANCE: Artist's studio.
Private collection Northern Germany (present from the artist to the consignor's father).

EXHIBITION: Alexej von Jawlensky. Galerie Ludwig Hillesheimer, Wiesbaden 29 May - 25 June 1948, cat. no. 32 with the title "Kopf Nr. 2".

Jawlensky suffered from a progressing paralysis and had difficulties in painting. In 1933 the National Socialists banned him from exhibiting. One year later the painter began the series of 'Meditations'. In his struggle to capture the powerful statement made by the human countenance, Jawlensky passed through several intermediate phases before finally arriving at the Meditations, which represent the high point of his late work. Hindered by illness and often in pain, as he reported himself, he painted the little Meditations in a sort of hovering state, detached from the vexations of earthly existence. They are variations on a type which he created and then desired to recreate by transcendentally amplifying it yet returning endlessly to it. Trusting in the form once found, Jawlensky was aided by the magic of the colors with which he visualised the stages of his self-immersion in them. This is deeply religious art, informed by far more than the purely visual aspect.



261
Alexej von Jawlensky
Große Meditation (Juli 1936 N. 2), 1936.
Oil
Estimate:
€ 60,000 / $ 64,800
Sold:
€ 120,000 / $ 129,600

(incl. surcharge)