ALEXEJ VON JAWLENSKY 1864-1941

Alexej von Jawlensky was a Russo-German painter, born in 1864 and who died in 1941. A son of the colonel from the Imperial army, he travelled a lot in Russia. In 1880, while he studied at the Ecole des Cadets in Moscow, he intended the world exhibition and had an artistic epiphany. When his father died he was forced to enter the army which was beneficial to him due to his position in Moscow, where he discovered the artistic emulation of the city at that time. Since then, he painted tatars steppe landscapes and studied at the Imperial Academy of Fine Arts of Saint-Petersburg. In 1890 he met Marianne von Werefkin, studen of the realist and romantic painter Ilya Repine with an established reputation in Russia. In Munich, after he left the army, he met Kandinsky with who he became good friend. He then stayed in France where he met Diaghilev who introduced him to the Salon d'Automne where he exhibited 6 paintings in 1905. At the same time he met Matisse. In Munich he met Paul Sérusier and discovered the Nabi movement. With Kandinsky, Werefkin and Münter, he founded the Neue Künstlervereinigung München (New Association fot he Munich Artistes) or NKVM and exhibited with the group at the Thannhauser gallery in Munich. Exiled in Switzerland at the beginning of the war as many artists of his time, he developped until the end of his life a refined and more simple style.