Turandot (Jawlensky)
Princess Turandot, Turandot and Turandot II are the titles of three expressionist paintings by the German-Russian painter Alexej von Jawlensky , which were created in 1912. One picture belongs to the holdings of the Sprengel Museum Hannover , one is on private loan to the Zentrum Paul Klee in Bern, and the whereabouts of the third picture, of which only a black and white photograph made by Jawlensky himself (today in the A. v. Jawlensky Archive SA , Locarno) is unknown.
Description, interpretation and context
The picture from the Sprengel Museum Hannover is made using the technique of oil on cardboard and has the dimensions 53.9 × 49.5 cm. It bears the number CR 468 in Jawlensky's Catalog raisonné , i.e. his catalog raisonné , the Bern painting is painted on canvas, measures 60 × 54 cm (no. CR 466). The third picture is believed to have been painted on canvas, although the dimensions are unknown; it bears the number CR 467 in the catalog raisonné.
The thematic background of the pictures is the story of the Chinese princess Turandot , who is told in a fairy tale by Carlo Gozzi . Turandot only wants to marry the noble suitor who is able to solve the three riddles she poses for him. All other applicants have the cruel princess beheaded.
Jawlensky's depictions of the princess were created in Oberstdorf in the summer of 1912. They show them in different states of mind. The picture from the Sprengel Museum Hanover shows her as a cruel, withdrawn woman who rejects men and has angular contours of the face, a black mouth with a strongly formed lip contour, which is framed with cold shades of blue and white, and red cheeks. Turandot is furious, the candidate has apparently failed. The neck and shoulder are clearly highlighted in the drawing, her gaze is fixed, the black brow of the slightly crooked right eye merges into the contour of the nose. The background of the picture, like the frame around the mouth, consists of the same cold shades of blue and white.
In complete contrast to this, the Swiss picture shows a rounded head, sensual shapes and other colors. Turandot's face is shown in cold colors here, too, her mouth, which is also black, this time with full lips, is also closed, but behind her head Jawlensky painted a red, hot aura that, despite all rejection, could radiate a willingness to love. This portrayal of Turandot is not so harsh, but seems to express feelings. Your shoulders are shaped a little differently in this picture than in the first. In both pictures the right shoulder is done in yellow and orange warning-repellent colors and outlined drawing and is slightly pushed forward in the posture, while the left shoulder is barely recognizable in the second picture; it merges with the dark background. Turandot shows the viewer the so-called cold shoulder .
Originally the women depicted were Marianne von Werefkins domestic help and later wife of Jawlensky Helene Nesnakomoff, as well as a young painter colleague named Katharina Konstantinowka, whom Jawlensky met in Munich. But nothing else has become known about her. In addition, there were other models that can no longer be identified. Through the repetition and variation of his head motifs, Jawlensky developed a deepening of the depiction in which the model is barely recognizable, but only the type of these female heads, which in a kind of archaic-appearing female elemental force - mysterious, fascinating, at the same time frightening , cruel and superior to the male.
The heads that Jawlensky painted at that time meant recognition in the art world for him. In the opinion of Clemens Weiler, the former director of the Kunstmuseum Wiesbaden after 1950 and Jawlensky connoisseur, his almost square picture formats, in which the mostly round faces are located, stand for the conscious and limited that the round shapes, i.e. the head, the represents the unconscious and the infinite, encloses. Jawlensky was probably familiar with the resulting formal tension from his studies.
Jawlensky painted many heads that became more and more abstract in his later years. He wrote about his very creative phase around 1911/12:
“This summer [1911] meant a great development in my art for me. I painted my best landscapes and figural works there in very strong, glowing colors, absolutely not naturalistic or material. I took a lot of red, blue, orange, cadmium yellow, chromium oxide green. The forms were very strongly contoured with Prussian blue and powerful from an inner ecstasy [...]. In 1912, what I had started in Prerow developed further . "
Provenance and exhibitions
The painting Princess Turandot bears the number CR 466 in the catalog raisonné, it is in a private collection that is not described in detail. The picture was exhibited in Hanover in 1920, in Wiesbaden in 1921, in Dresden in 1922, in Chemnitz in 1923 and also in Chemnitz in 2013 at the Gunzenhauser Museum.
The work Turandot has the number CR 467 in the catalog raisonné. It belonged to the art collector Franz Werner Kluxen , was confiscated by the National Socialists as " degenerate art " with his collection and has since been considered lost.
The picture with the title Turandot II bears the work number CR 468 and belonged to Heinrich Kirchhoff's art collection until 1934 , which was then dissolved and sold. In the upper right corner, to the left of the signature AJ , there is a dedication with the words: “To the collector H. Kirchhoff and dear friend on the 50th birthday of A. Jawlensky. July 10, 24 “Until 1969 the work belonged to Margit and Bernhard Sprengel , who donated their collection to the city of Hanover.
Exhibitions
- Gallery Der Sturm von Herwarth Walden in Berlin, picture No. 467 Turandot (the lost painting), No. 466 Princess Turandot and No. 468 Turandot II
- documenta 1 from July 15 to September 18, 1955, Turandot II , in the catalog with black and white illustration (panel no.3) and in the directory no.239
- Alexej von Jawlensky from September 2 to November 25, 2012 in the Jena City Museum (Turandot II)
Web links
- Madame Turandot on seekersofexpressionism.wordpress.com (a picture is described on this website that, according to German-language literature, does not belong to the Turandot series)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Alexej von Jawlensky: Memoirs. (1937). Reprinted in the catalog of the Dortmund exhibition Alexej von Jawlwnsky. Travel, friends, changes in the Museum am Ostwall. Heidelberg 1998, p. 115.
- ↑ Angelica Jawlensky Bianconi. In: Ingrid Mössinger, Thomas Bauer-Friedrich (Eds.): Jawlensky newly seen. Sandstein Verlag, Dresden 2013, ISBN 978-3-95498-059-8 , p. 22 ff.
- ↑ Erik Stephan: Alexej von Jawlensky - "I work for myself, only for myself and my God." Exhibition catalog Jena 2012. ISBN 978-3-942176-70-5 , p. 96
- ↑ Clemens Weiler: Alexej Jawlensky. Hans Peters Verlag, Hanau 1970, ISBN 3-87627-217-3 , p. 112.
- ↑ a b Alexej von Jawlensky at Ketterer Kunst
- ↑ Flyer Art Collection Jena 2012 (PDF) on jena.de