ALEXEJ VON JAWLENSKY | OHNE TITEL, ABSTRAKTION (UNTITLED, ABSTRACTION)

Walter I. Farmer, Ohio (acquired by 1980 and sold: Sotheby's, New York, February 20, 1986, lot 53A)

Henry & Marianne Reed, Montclair (acquired at the above sale)

Thence by descent

Maria Jawlensky, Lucia Pieroni-Jawlensky & Angelica Jawlensky, Alexej von Jawlensky: Catalogue raisonné of the Watercolours and Drawings 1890-1938, vol. IV, London, 1998, no. 657, illustrated p. 250

Cincinnati, Cincinnati Art Museum, Germany 1900-1933, 1980, n.n., 

Walter I. Farmer, the former owner of this work, served in World War II as a member of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. After the conclusion of the war, he was one of the primary members of the Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives program (MFAA), an Allies-led initiative to return displaced works of art to their rightful owners and countries of origin. During his time with the MFAA, Farmer served as the director of the Central Collecting Point in Wiesbaden, where the Bust of Nefertiti now in the collection of the Neues Museum, Berlin, re-surfaced. The activities of the MFAA received renewed public interest upon the release of the blockbuster motion picture Monuments Men in 2014.