Self-portrait

Throughout his work, Jawlensky repeatedly dealt with the human face. Strangely enough, there are only eight painted self-portraits. The artist created four of them in 1911/12. The copy from the Im Obersteg collection is the first in this series and was created in Prerow on the Baltic Sea. The picture shows the 47-year-old artist in a mature, expressionist style, filling the picture and in three-quarter profile. The right half of his face is made up of bright spots of color; the left, on the other hand, appears in shadow. Jawlensky used non-objective, autonomous colors in the design of the head. They are applied in a moving brush script and clamped in distinctive shapes. Everything points to pent-up energy. The reduced line of the mouth and piercing blue eyes under black brows show determination. The compact neck in the starched stand-up collar gives an impression of severity. The red-clad upper body is contoured in black and forms a closed, solid base for the head. Behind this, the monochrome blue background, which is only applied to cover the silhouette, shines in high contrast. The artist shows himself to be powerful without painting utensils. His awe-inspiring pose is reminiscent, for example, of rulers of the Renaissance. (Henriette Mentha)