Alexej von Jawlensky

Estate of the artist (deposited for storage with Karl Im Obersteg, Basel, 1933-1952)

Galerie Beyeler, Basel (acquired from the above in 1957. Sold: Stuttgarter Kunstkabinett, Stuttgart, 37. Auktion Moderne Kunst, 3rd & 4th May 1962, lot 179)

Private Collection

Sale: Hauswedell & Nolte, Hamburg, 14th-16th June 1973, lot 813

Purchased at the above sale by the present owner

Chemnitz, Kunsthütte zu Chemnitz, Alexej von Jawlensky, 1923

Stuttgart, Kunstsalon Schaller, Alexej von Jawlensky, 1923

Paris, Galerie Jacques Fricker, Alexej von Jawlensky, 1956, no. 7

Basel, Galerie Beyeler, Alexej von Jawlensky, 1864-1941, 1957, no. 23

Bern, Kunsthalle Bern & Saarbrücken, Saarlandmuseum, Alexej von Jawlensky, 1957, no. 47

Düsseldorf, Kunstverein für die Rheinlande und Westfalen; Bremen, Kunsthalle Bremen, Stuttgart, Württembergischer Kunstverein & Mannheim, Städtische Kunsthalle, Alexej von Jawlensky, 1864-1941, 1957-58, no. 47 (no. 48 in Stuttgart & Mannheim)

Los Angeles, Stephen Silagy Galleries, Alexej von Jawlensky, 1958, no. 3

The artist’s handlist: listed as ‘Landschaften E 25 Bunter Berg im Tal’

Clemens Weiler, Alexej Jawlensky, Cologne, 1959, no. 567, illustrated p. 267

Maria Jawlensky, Lucia Pieroni-Jawlensky & Angelica Jawlensky, Alexej von Jawlensky, Catalogue Raisonné of the Oil-Paintings 1890-1914, London, 1991, vol. I, no. 559, illustrated p. 430

The board is stable. There are three very small spots of retouching near the centre of the upper edge, and a few tiny specs of retouching in the upper left and lower right quadrants, all visible under ultra-violet light. Apart from a few minor losses to the framing edges, due to frame abrasion, and a small vertical scratch to the surface near the right edge (visible in the catalogue illustration), this work is in good condition. Colours: Overall fairly accurate in the printed catalogue illustration, although slightly brighter in the original.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

Painted in 1912, Bunter Berg im Tal bei Oberstdorf is a vibrant and powerful composition, and is a prime example of the Expressionist style which Jawlensky pioneered with the Blaue Reiter group. Made up of patches of strong, vibrant colour delineated in bold black contours, this landscape depicts hills and mountains that appear to overlap one another, leading the viewer’s eye from the foreground to the top of the composition. The range of intense blue, pink and orange tones is typical of Jawlensky’s Expressionist palette and characterised his paintings of this period. The present work, alongside several other dramatic mountainous landscapes (fig. 1), was painted near Oberstdorf, a small town in the Bavarian Alps where Jawlensky stayed in the second half of 1912 with his family and Marianne von Werefkin.

In its use of colour and style of execution, the present work draws on a rich tradition of modernist painting, including the art of, among others, Van Gogh, Matisse and Van Dongen. The spontaneous brushstrokes and the juxtaposition of bright and cool tones reflect the influence of Van Gogh and Cézanne. In 1905 Jawlensky’s works were exhibited at the Salon d’Automne in Paris alongside those of the Fauve artists, who were to play the most important role in the development of Jawlensky’s style in the following years. His abandonment of representational use of colour in favour of a more spontaneous, expressive one is strongly reminiscent of Matisse’s landscapes from his Fauve period. Bunter Berg im Tal bei Oberstdorf represents a synthesis of these various artistic influences into a personal and unique pictorial language. As Volker Rattemeyer writes: ‘The term ‘synthesis’ provides an important key to our understanding of Jawlensky’s works. With reference to Gauguin’s ‘Cloisonnism’, Jawlensky also began to outline his coloured forms, most frequently in black. The landscapes of the Murnau period are characterized as a whole by an intense involvement with surface, pictorial area and the effects of colour. Contours that seem to vibrate as well as frequent severe cropping of pictorial motifs provide evidence of Jawlenky’s independent position in the artistic world at the time. The tendencies rooted in the landscapes from the Murnau period were to be intensified in the years that followed. Under the stimulations gathered on a summer holiday in Prerow on the Baltic sea (1911) and on a trip to Paris in the autumn, during which he met van Dongen and saw Matisse again, and during a six-month stay in Oberstdorf the following year, Jawlensky’s works after 1911 gained in intensity of their colouration… as well as a heightened power of expression’ (V. Rattemeyer, Alexej von Jawlensky (exhibition catalogue), Museum Wiesbaden, Wiesbaden, 1991, pp. 14-15).