Heilandsgesicht: Märtyrer

Painted at the height of his Heilandsgesicht (Saviour’s Faces) series, Heilandsgesicht: Märtyrer represents an artistic apogee within Jawlensky’s quest for a pure expression of the spiritual within art through his accomplished use of abstraction and colour. A bright luminosity radiates from the celestial blue tones which bathe the composition, implying that the meditative figure in the composition is undergoing a similar spiritual enlightenment. The bold strokes of jewel-toned colours invoke the imagery of stained-glass windows, which in turn, were intended to transform ordinary daylight into the celestial rays of heaven to parishioners. Although Jawlensky experiments greatly with the facial features of his heads as the Heilandsgesicht series progresses, with features becoming increasingly geometric and abstracted, he frequently returns to the dazzling combination of ethereal blues and intense strokes of colour that is seen in

So deep was Jawlensky’s desire to invoke the spiritual in his art, that there were occasions on which he would meditate before beginning work on a canvas, believing that this would allow him to enter a religious state of mind, with which he could better approach the subject of the human face. He had been experimenting with abstracted depictions of the human head since his move to Switzerland at the outbreak of the first world war, and now, at the end of the decade, he had successfully distilled it to an abstracted yet recognisable composition.

From the two distinctive black curls which frame the figure’s face, it is possible to determine that the sitter was ‘Galka’ Emmy Scheyer, a young artist he had met in Saint Prax in 1916 who would go on to become his dealer and one of the most ardent promoters of his work. The art historian Clemens Weiler would later write that Scheyer, upon seeing Jawlensky’s art, was so taken by it that she abandoned her own practice to devote herself to aiding Jawlensky in his artistic mission. She became Jawlensky’s principal model for the Abstrakter Kopfen (Abstract Heads) and Heilandsgesicht series. From her very earliest appearances on Jawlensky’s canvases, where he employs a more Expressionist style, to his very last canvases, she was always demarcated by a strand of dark curls either side of her face. In earlier paintings, she is also recognisable for her piercing dark eyes, however, in Heilandsgesicht: Märtyrer these are shut, emphasising the emotional depth of her meditation.

Heilandsgesicht: Märtyrer is a particularly strong example of Jawlensky’s artistic ambition and skill, with its masterful subtlety of expression and breath-taking use of colour. It is evident that the artist must have been particularly proud of this painting, as he chose for it to feature in several important early exhibitions - most notably, the Venice Biennale in 1920. In addition to an illustrious early exhibition history, Heilandsgesicht: Märtyrer also has an equally distinguished early provenance, being gifted by the artist to Herman Kass, one of the most famous writers and journalists of Weimar Germany.

Jawlensky would continue to revisit the motif of abstract heads for the remained of his artistic career, however, in 1929, their mood would darken, reflecting his own mental state. An increasingly hostile political landscape, coupled with his diagnosis of arthritis in 1929 would, together, increasingly restrict his artistic creativity. Moving away from bright pastel and jewel-like tones like those in Heilandsgesicht: Märtyrer, his palettes would get darker and more shadowy as his physical ability to paint became ever more limited, until, in 1937, he was unable to paint any longer.