Alexej von Jawlensky Russia, 1864-1941
Heilandsgesicht (Savior's Face), c. 1921
Oil on linen-finished paper laid down on canvas
36.3 by 27.1 cm (14¼ by 10⅝ in.)
Signed 'A.J.' (lower left)
66295
© 2020 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Further images
Executed circa 1921. Heilandsgesicht (Savior's Face) demonstrates Alexej von Jawlensky’s remarkable ability to create an image of contemplative beauty and pathos within a highly pared-down method of painting. Beginning around...
Executed circa 1921. Heilandsgesicht (Savior's Face) demonstrates Alexej von Jawlensky’s remarkable ability to create an image of contemplative beauty and pathos within a highly pared-down method of painting. Beginning around 1910, Jawlensky employed the human head as an apparatus to which to apply his highly subjective strategies of modernist painting, such as isolated lines, grids, and gradients accompanied by an expressive palette, in lieu of a traditionally representational rendering. His heads reference both the religious icons from his childhood spent in Russia and Modernism’s interest in the simplified forms of non-Western art.
Provenance
Hammer Galleries, New York
Sale: Parke Bernet New York, December 12, 1968, lot 19
Serge Sabarsky Gallery, New York
Saltzman Family Collection, New York (acquired by 1992)
Leonard Hutton Galleries, New York
Davis Family Collection (acquired from the above April 16, 1998; sale: Christie's London, June 25, 2014, lot 352)
Private Collection
Literature
M. Jawlensky and L. Pieroni-Jawlensky, Alexej von Jawlensky: Catalogue Raisonné of Oil Paintings Vol. II, 1914-1933, London, 1992, no. 1138, illustrated p. 323 (mentioned p. 337)