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Lot Essay
Created in 1913, Renaissance-kopf dates from a key period of Alexej von Jawlensky’s career, one which he later described as “the turning point” in his art (quoted in M. Jawlensky, L. Pieroni-Jawlensky & A. Jawlensky, Alexej von Jawlensky: Catalogue Raisonné of the Oil Paintings Volume One 1890-1914, London, 1991, p. 31). Beginning in 1911 during a sojourn to the Baltic Coast and continuing up to the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, Jawlensky believed that the works he produced over the course of these three years were among the most powerful of all his artistic achievements, ones in which he “found a personal form and palette” (quoted in C. Weiler, Jawlensky: Heads Faces Meditations, New York, 1971, p. 106). Focusing almost exclusively on close-up studies of the human face, Jawlensky’s paintings from this period are characterized by bold gestural brushstrokes, juxtapositions of vibrant complementary colors, and stark black outlines, as he sought to reach new dimensions of emotional and spiritual depth in his art.
Emerging at the height of this period of extreme creativity, Renaissance-kopf is a richly-worked, enigmatic portrait of the dancer Alexander Sacharoff, an important figure in the avant-garde circles of Munich during the pre-War era and one of Jawlensky’s closest friends. A native of Mariupol, Sacharoff had studied painting in Paris before settling in Munich in 1905, where he began training as a dancer. He entered Jawlensky’s orbit during the opening months of 1908, joining the Neue Künstlervereinigung München (NKVM), where he was enthusiastically welcomed for his sensual, androgynous approach to dance as an expression of the self. In 1910 he caused a sensation with his inaugural appearance at the city’s Odeon theatre, performing in lavish costumes of his own design. As Jawlensky recalled in his memoirs, “We were together constantly for a number of years; he was at our place almost every day. These years of friendship were very interesting, since Sacharoff is an intelligent, quick-witted, sensitive, gifted person. We discussed his entire training as a dancer. I always watched him dance. He loved my art and understood it very well” (quoted in R. Zieglgänsberger, A. Hoberg and M. Mühling, eds., Soulmates: Alexej von Jawlensky and Marianne von Werefkin, exh. cat., Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus und Kunstbau, Munich, 2019, p. 207).
Sacharoff frequently sat for Jawlensky over the course of their friendship, becoming one of the artist’s favorite models. For example, in his 1909 composition Bildnis des Tänzers Alexander Sacharoff (Jawlensky, no. 250; Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus und Kunstbau, Munich), one of the most iconic paintings of Jawlensky’s entire oeuvre, the artist captures a vivid sense of his friend’s playful energy and theatrical streak, portraying him in a bright vermillion costume and stark white stage make-up. Sporting a rakish smile that curves upwards at the corner, Sacharoff gazes directly at the viewer, his kohl-rimmed eyes at once challenging and seductive. According to the sitter’s wife (and dance partner) Clotilde von Derp-Sacharoff, the painting was created one evening on the spur of the moment, while the dancer was visiting Jawlensky’s studio just before a performance. When it was time to depart, Sacharoff insisted on taking the portrait with him, even though the pigment was still wet, fearing that if he left it behind the artist would paint over it.
Jawlensky found Sacharoff’s androgynous appearance fascinating, often using his image as the starting point for both female and male characters in his compositions. In Renaissance-kopf, the dancer adopts an introspective pose, his eyes cast downwards and away from the artist as if lost in thought, while his distinctive facial features are strongly stylized, translated into a network of simplified, sharply delineated, geometric shapes and lines. By reducing traces of his sitter’s individuality in this way, eliminating the idiosyncrasies of his appearance in pursuit of a more generalized character, Jawlensky transforms Sacharoff into an archetypal figure, allowing the painting to become a study in mood and atmosphere rather than a traditional portrait. One of the most powerful elements of the composition lies in the intensity of the artist’s palette, as blocks of bold, rich colors clash dramatically with one another in a luminous constellation of vivid hues. Using thick, zig-zagging brushstrokes of turquoise green and deep purple to describe the planes of Sacharoff’s face, as well as an electric blue veil that envelopes his head in a luminous shimmer of bright color, Jawlensky intensifies our focus on his sitter’s visage and infuses the composition with a palpable sense of energy.
Renaissance-kopf was acquired directly from the artist in 1920 by the Munich-based artist Heinrich Ehmsen, who was a close friend of Jawlensky and involved in the Novembergruppe. It was later purchased by the Anhaltische Gemäldegalerie in Dessau, entering the collections in March 1931, where it remained for six years before being confiscated as entartete kunst, or “degenerate art.” More than seventy works by Jawlensky were removed from German museums in 1937 during the great cultural purge engineered by the National Socialists, which aimed to systematically “impound works of German art of decline since 1910 currently in the possession of the Reich, the states, and the communes” that “insult German sentiment or destroy or confuse natural form” (quoted in O. Peters, ed., Degenerate Art: The Attack on Modern Art in Nazi Germany 1937, exh. cat., Neue Galerie, New York, 2014, p. 37). Renaissance-kopf was included in three of the now infamous travelling exhibitions dedicated to these confiscated artworks (Dessau, Hamburg and Salzburg), which sought to publicly mock and defame the leading artists of German modernism.
Thankfully, the painting survived the war after being sold to Galerie Fischer in Lucerne, and was subsequently purchased by Dr Ludwig Grote, the former director of the Anhaltische Gemäldegalerie and a central figure in the establishment of the Bauhaus in Dessau, who had been dismissed from his post by the Nazis in 1933. After the War, Grote organized a number of major retrospectives of classic modernism in Germany, and was appointed the first director of the Germanisches Nationalmuseum in Nuremberg in 1951. Renaissance-kopf was purchased by the Volkart Foundation in 1962, and has remained in their collection ever since.
Emerging at the height of this period of extreme creativity, Renaissance-kopf is a richly-worked, enigmatic portrait of the dancer Alexander Sacharoff, an important figure in the avant-garde circles of Munich during the pre-War era and one of Jawlensky’s closest friends. A native of Mariupol, Sacharoff had studied painting in Paris before settling in Munich in 1905, where he began training as a dancer. He entered Jawlensky’s orbit during the opening months of 1908, joining the Neue Künstlervereinigung München (NKVM), where he was enthusiastically welcomed for his sensual, androgynous approach to dance as an expression of the self. In 1910 he caused a sensation with his inaugural appearance at the city’s Odeon theatre, performing in lavish costumes of his own design. As Jawlensky recalled in his memoirs, “We were together constantly for a number of years; he was at our place almost every day. These years of friendship were very interesting, since Sacharoff is an intelligent, quick-witted, sensitive, gifted person. We discussed his entire training as a dancer. I always watched him dance. He loved my art and understood it very well” (quoted in R. Zieglgänsberger, A. Hoberg and M. Mühling, eds., Soulmates: Alexej von Jawlensky and Marianne von Werefkin, exh. cat., Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus und Kunstbau, Munich, 2019, p. 207).
Sacharoff frequently sat for Jawlensky over the course of their friendship, becoming one of the artist’s favorite models. For example, in his 1909 composition Bildnis des Tänzers Alexander Sacharoff (Jawlensky, no. 250; Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus und Kunstbau, Munich), one of the most iconic paintings of Jawlensky’s entire oeuvre, the artist captures a vivid sense of his friend’s playful energy and theatrical streak, portraying him in a bright vermillion costume and stark white stage make-up. Sporting a rakish smile that curves upwards at the corner, Sacharoff gazes directly at the viewer, his kohl-rimmed eyes at once challenging and seductive. According to the sitter’s wife (and dance partner) Clotilde von Derp-Sacharoff, the painting was created one evening on the spur of the moment, while the dancer was visiting Jawlensky’s studio just before a performance. When it was time to depart, Sacharoff insisted on taking the portrait with him, even though the pigment was still wet, fearing that if he left it behind the artist would paint over it.
Jawlensky found Sacharoff’s androgynous appearance fascinating, often using his image as the starting point for both female and male characters in his compositions. In Renaissance-kopf, the dancer adopts an introspective pose, his eyes cast downwards and away from the artist as if lost in thought, while his distinctive facial features are strongly stylized, translated into a network of simplified, sharply delineated, geometric shapes and lines. By reducing traces of his sitter’s individuality in this way, eliminating the idiosyncrasies of his appearance in pursuit of a more generalized character, Jawlensky transforms Sacharoff into an archetypal figure, allowing the painting to become a study in mood and atmosphere rather than a traditional portrait. One of the most powerful elements of the composition lies in the intensity of the artist’s palette, as blocks of bold, rich colors clash dramatically with one another in a luminous constellation of vivid hues. Using thick, zig-zagging brushstrokes of turquoise green and deep purple to describe the planes of Sacharoff’s face, as well as an electric blue veil that envelopes his head in a luminous shimmer of bright color, Jawlensky intensifies our focus on his sitter’s visage and infuses the composition with a palpable sense of energy.
Renaissance-kopf was acquired directly from the artist in 1920 by the Munich-based artist Heinrich Ehmsen, who was a close friend of Jawlensky and involved in the Novembergruppe. It was later purchased by the Anhaltische Gemäldegalerie in Dessau, entering the collections in March 1931, where it remained for six years before being confiscated as entartete kunst, or “degenerate art.” More than seventy works by Jawlensky were removed from German museums in 1937 during the great cultural purge engineered by the National Socialists, which aimed to systematically “impound works of German art of decline since 1910 currently in the possession of the Reich, the states, and the communes” that “insult German sentiment or destroy or confuse natural form” (quoted in O. Peters, ed., Degenerate Art: The Attack on Modern Art in Nazi Germany 1937, exh. cat., Neue Galerie, New York, 2014, p. 37). Renaissance-kopf was included in three of the now infamous travelling exhibitions dedicated to these confiscated artworks (Dessau, Hamburg and Salzburg), which sought to publicly mock and defame the leading artists of German modernism.
Thankfully, the painting survived the war after being sold to Galerie Fischer in Lucerne, and was subsequently purchased by Dr Ludwig Grote, the former director of the Anhaltische Gemäldegalerie and a central figure in the establishment of the Bauhaus in Dessau, who had been dismissed from his post by the Nazis in 1933. After the War, Grote organized a number of major retrospectives of classic modernism in Germany, and was appointed the first director of the Germanisches Nationalmuseum in Nuremberg in 1951. Renaissance-kopf was purchased by the Volkart Foundation in 1962, and has remained in their collection ever since.