亞力瑟·馮·亞爾倫斯基

Professor Joseph Enseling, Essen & Düsseldorf

Private Collection, Rhineland (by descent from the above. Sold: Kunsthaus Lempertz, Cologne, 11th June 1963, lot 305)

Private Collection, Germany (purchased at the above sale)

Private Collection, Germany (by descent from the above. Sold: Sotheby's, London, 8th February 2005, lot 9)

Purchased at the above sale

Maria Jawlensky, Lucia Pieroni-Jawlensky & Angelica Jawlensky, Alexej von Jawlensky, Catalogue Raisonné of the Oil Paintings,vol. I, London, 1991, no. 566, illustrated p. 432

Angelica Jawlensky Bianconi, Michele Gilardi & Floria Segieth-Wuelfert, Reihe Bild und Wissenschaft. Forschungsbeiträge zu Leben und Werk Alexej von Jawlenskys, Locarno, 2009, illustrated p. 160

Painted circa 1912, the present still-life is a wonderfully vivid composition that belongs to the most innovative period of Jawlensky's œuvre during which, in his own words, he created some of his most powerful works. With its strong colours and vigorous brushwork, this still-life reflects the profound impression that the Fauves made on the artist. In 1905 Jawlensky exhibited alongside the Fauve’s at the Salon d'Automne, and soon after his paintings began to show the influence of his French contemporaries. However, the present still-life not only reflects the artist's admiration for works by Matisse but also for Cézanne's paintings, which he saw in Paris at the same time.

The simplified shapes and naïve imagery in Stilleben mit Hyazinthe, blauem Krug und Äpfeln can also be traced back to indigenous Russian painting of the time. Enriched by these influences the present work is a wonderful testimony to the artist's evolution of a personal style, marking the painter's maturation into one of the most important German Expressionist artists. In his memoires, dictated to Lisa Kümmel in 1937, Jawlensky recalled: 'At that time I was painting mostly still-lives because in them I could more easily find myself. I tried in these still-life paintings to go beyond the material objects and express in colour and form the thing which was vibrating within me, and I achieved some good results' (quoted in M. Jawlensky, L. Pieroni-Jawlensky & A. Jawlensky, op. cit., p. 30).