Alexej von Jawlensky

Stilleben mit Äpfeln und Flasche, painted circa 1900, clearly demonstrates the post-impressionist Cézannesque influence and yet shows Jawlensky’s very own independent style of painting. The table seems to tilt the picture plane outwards estranging the perspective of the work, whilst the thick, dotted brushstrokes evoke not only those of Cézanne but also of Van Gogh. Combining artistic influences with his own desire for harmony in colour and composition, Jawlensky’s Stilleben mit Äpfeln und Flasche represents a well-formed symbiosis of styles.

In 1899 Jawlensky decided to leave the renowned Anton Azbès School of painting in Munich, Germany and began an independent painting career, concentrating at first on still-lifes in search of harmony in colours as is evident in his choice of vivid green, red and orange in Stilleben mit Äpfeln und Flasche. When looking at Jawlensky’s œuvre of the years around 1900 it shows no influence of the then so prominent Munich Jugendstil, but instead the artist was developing his own path. Self-critically he admits: ‘I was unhappy with what I painted and started to paint still-lifes without any particular direction, mostly fruits. I tried constantly to create a pictorial harmony of my own’ (quoted in R. Chiappini, Alexej Jawlensky, Italy, 1989, p. 58). The still life was a subject matter that Jawlensky pursuit throughout his career as one of the most important avant-garde artists of German Expressionism.