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Lot Essay
Heilandsgesicht: Auferstehung oder Das neue Leben II ('Saviour's Face: Resurrection or the New Life II') was painted in 1918 during the wartime period, when resurrection and religious solace had taken an increasingly central place in Jawlensky's life. His life in exile, disastrous news from his Russian homeland and the subsequent death of his mother in 1917 turned him increasingly away from the sensuality of his pre-War works, leading him to create his own highly personal yet universal image of the sublime. Heilandsgesicht: Auferstehung oder Das neue Leben II is a powerful expression of this, mixing an outlet for spiritual comfort with the optimistic hope of a resurrection and a new life. Reflecting on the genesis of this new series of 'head' paintings, Jawlensky later recalled:
'I found it necessary to find form for the face, because I had come to understand that great art can only be painted with religious feeling. And that I could only bring to the human face. I understood that the artist must express through his art, in forms and colours, the divine inside him. Therefore a work of art is God made visible, and art is a 'longing for God'. I sat in my studio and painted, and did not need Nature as a prompter. I only had to immerse myself in myself, pray, and prepare my soul to a state of religious awareness. They are technically very perfect, and radiate spirituality' (quoted in Jawlensky, Peroni-Jawlensky and Jawlensky, Jawlensky, letter to Pater Willibrord Verkade, Wiesbaden, 12 June 1938).
Jawlensky first painted a Heilandsgesicht in 1917, the same year he began his Mystischer Kopf series. Paintings in the latter series often paid tribute in their titles to their partial inspiration, in Jawlensky's admirer and international representative, Emmy 'Galka' Scheyer. Her abstracted features were a base element in his head pictures. Heilandsgesicht: Auferstehung oder Das neue Leben II also contains marked similarities to portraits of her. Despite the title's reference to the 'Saviour', implying Jesus Christ, many of the paintings in the series have names referring to female subjects or represent female faces. The extreme composure and the calm, light colours in Heilandsgesicht: Auferstehung oder Das neue Leben II combine to create a sense of enlightenment and resurrection fitting to its title.
On the declaration of war, Jawlensky had been forced to leave Munich, entering an enforced artistic exile in Switzerland. In the early years, Jawlensky saw very few avant-garde artists, but this introspective artistic solitude ended on his move to Ascona in 1918, where he rigorously explored truer means of artistic expression. His lifestyle became increasingly spiritual - he had already been reading extensively about yoga for several years. This extended to the almost yogic concentration he developed for painting 'heads' - they were a form of meditation. His palette matured, giving way to less glaring, more absorbing light colours, exemplified in the pale, restrained facial tone and background in the present work. During this period of self-scrutiny, Jawlensky continued painting works like the Variations and Heilandsgesicht, refining his medium of self-expression but it was only in Ascona that the near abstraction of the Variation cycle truly translated to his pictures of the human face. While the importance of Heilandsgesicht: Auferstehung oder Das neue Leben II is reflected in its provenance, having belonged to Dr. Hermann Bode, a keen patron of the Expressionists, the work's inclusion in the 'Maler aus Ascona' exhibition in Zurich in 1919 is a telling reflection of Jawlensky's sense of progress.
'I found it necessary to find form for the face, because I had come to understand that great art can only be painted with religious feeling. And that I could only bring to the human face. I understood that the artist must express through his art, in forms and colours, the divine inside him. Therefore a work of art is God made visible, and art is a 'longing for God'. I sat in my studio and painted, and did not need Nature as a prompter. I only had to immerse myself in myself, pray, and prepare my soul to a state of religious awareness. They are technically very perfect, and radiate spirituality' (quoted in Jawlensky, Peroni-Jawlensky and Jawlensky, Jawlensky, letter to Pater Willibrord Verkade, Wiesbaden, 12 June 1938).
Jawlensky first painted a Heilandsgesicht in 1917, the same year he began his Mystischer Kopf series. Paintings in the latter series often paid tribute in their titles to their partial inspiration, in Jawlensky's admirer and international representative, Emmy 'Galka' Scheyer. Her abstracted features were a base element in his head pictures. Heilandsgesicht: Auferstehung oder Das neue Leben II also contains marked similarities to portraits of her. Despite the title's reference to the 'Saviour', implying Jesus Christ, many of the paintings in the series have names referring to female subjects or represent female faces. The extreme composure and the calm, light colours in Heilandsgesicht: Auferstehung oder Das neue Leben II combine to create a sense of enlightenment and resurrection fitting to its title.
On the declaration of war, Jawlensky had been forced to leave Munich, entering an enforced artistic exile in Switzerland. In the early years, Jawlensky saw very few avant-garde artists, but this introspective artistic solitude ended on his move to Ascona in 1918, where he rigorously explored truer means of artistic expression. His lifestyle became increasingly spiritual - he had already been reading extensively about yoga for several years. This extended to the almost yogic concentration he developed for painting 'heads' - they were a form of meditation. His palette matured, giving way to less glaring, more absorbing light colours, exemplified in the pale, restrained facial tone and background in the present work. During this period of self-scrutiny, Jawlensky continued painting works like the Variations and Heilandsgesicht, refining his medium of self-expression but it was only in Ascona that the near abstraction of the Variation cycle truly translated to his pictures of the human face. While the importance of Heilandsgesicht: Auferstehung oder Das neue Leben II is reflected in its provenance, having belonged to Dr. Hermann Bode, a keen patron of the Expressionists, the work's inclusion in the 'Maler aus Ascona' exhibition in Zurich in 1919 is a telling reflection of Jawlensky's sense of progress.