"Kopf in Bronzefarben – Bildnis Sacharoff" (1913) – The perfect moment
The expressionist Alexej von Jawlensky, who must have held the “Head in Bronze Colors – Portrait Sacharoff” in high esteem since he presented the painting at a seminal exhibition of the Munich Secession in 1914 shortly after its creation, was famous for his “loud” aggressive use of color. This painting is a prime example of the artist's delicate handling of softer tones, which may be much more challenging to achieve because he knew very well that not everything with color is also colorful. It should be noted that Jawlensky deliberately muted his bold palette around 1913 to create paintings with a deeper, somber tonality that would reverberate in the viewer as if in an echo chamber, thus unfolding a lasting impression. The same is true of the present bronze head, which fills much of the surface against a blue-gray background sprinkled with lively touches of green and claret, giving the dark head a pleasantly significant quality. The fact that it does not convey power or even menace is entirely due to the restrained colors, which flash out of the darkness only on his right cheek with an almost glistening quality, and, of course, to the fact that the thinker in the present work is depicted in the classic melancholic pose with his head resting on his hand.
The question is how today's experts recognized the sitter for “Head in Bronze Colors” as one of the very few close friends of the artist, the dancer Alexander Sacharoff? To give two examples, an anonymous “Portrait of a Boy” was renamed “Nikita” after Marianne von Werefkin's nephew was identified. Or the “Portrait of a Man”, acquired by the Museum Wiesbaden from the famous art dealer Hanna Bekker vom Rath in 1954, was renamed “Portrait of Sacharoff” by Jawlensky's first biographer Clemens Weiler (presumably in consultation with the artist's son Andreas Jawlensky). Since the “Head in Bronze Colors” is undoubtedly the same size as its pendant in Wiesbaden and was also painted the same year, it is more than justified to call the painting “Portrait of Sacharoff” as well, especially since the dancer was a frequent guest at the home of Jawlensky and Werefkin at Giselastraße 23 in Munich/Schwabing. Even if it remains unclear which of the two paintings was created first, they must have been painted around the same time, judging by their similarity and the fact that they are both of excellent quality, seemingly executed at the exact perfect moment.

All this is further proof that Jawlensky was already thinking in terms of making versions of a motif before the First World War, which later developed into his excellent series of “Abstract Heads” (from 1918) or the “Meditations” (from 1934). Although both of these pictures were still conceived as independent masterpieces, the idea of a complementary partner picture was already there. While the angular, antiquish-looking Sacharoff in Wiesbaden, depicted in profile, seems to be pondering some distant intellectual concept, the bronze-colored Sacharoff, frontally diepicted and pleasantly fitting into the square, seems, for his narrow yellow eyes, like the epitome of a generally contemplative person.

Dr. Roman Zieglgänsberger
Member of the academic advisory board of the Alexej von Jawlensky Archive, Muralto/Switzerland, curator of Modern Art, Museum Wiesbaden








“Kopf in Bronzefarben – Bildnis Sacharoff”: An Expressionist Masterpiece
At the pinnacle of European Modernism, Alexej von Jawlensky made this portrait of the dancer Sacharoff” in 1913, an outstanding example of Expressionist painting: Jawlensky rendered a vibrant play of glowing turquoise, purple and bronze tones within powerful black contours, punctuated with striking highlights. The gaze of the highly stylized, almond-shaped eyes in a dazzling yellow against the background exudes a captivating intensity. Jawlensky's powerful head, with its strong colors and forms, is surrounded by a mysterious aura that inevitably captivates the viewer. Created in the immediate environment of the “Blauer Reiter”, "Kopf in Bronzefarben – Bildnis Sacharoff" bears witness to the tremendous artistic radicalism and progressiveness of this significant phase in art history. The search for completely new forms of artistic expression was formative for the European avant-garde shortly before the outbreak of World War I. Starting with the painting retreats in Murnau with Wassily Kandinsky, Gabriele Münter and Marianne von Werefkin, Jawlensky was henceforth considered an expressionist artist in the immediate environment of the “Blauer Reiter”, the avant-garde artist association founded in December 1911 after Wassily Kandinsky and Franz Marc left the “Neue Künstlervereinigung München” . The period was short and intense: the “Blauer Reiter” lasted only two and a half years, disbanding in the summer of 1914 with the outbreak of the First World War. But it was precisely this tremendous concentration that gave rise to something of enormous artistic significance: in this short period of time, completely new forms of expression were discovered and a new, expressive potential was unlocked in painting, which was to shape European modern art in a decisive way from then on. For contemporary aesthetic perception, which was primarily influenced by Art Nouveau and Impressionist painting, the emotionally charged painting of Jawlensky and his contemporaries, emancipated from the model of nature, went much too far. Today, however, these progressive artistic paths, detached from all conventions, which were taken at that time, are considered one of the most important chapters that 20th-century art history has to offer.

1913 – Heyday of European Modernism
It was 1913 when Jawlensky painted his captivating expressionist “Head in Bronze Colors – Portrait Sacharoff”, inspired by the fascinating personality of the avant-garde star dancer Alexander Sacharoff. The year before the outbreak of World War I, when Expressionism reached its absolute zenith, not only in Munich but also in the cultural metropolises of Berlin and Vienna. The year in which Franz Marc, who would lose his life at just 36 on his last day of service in World War I at Verdun, painted his famous and still-missing painting “The Tower of Blue Horses,” and Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, who had moved from Dresden to the art mecca of Berlin, began working on his celebrated “Berlin Street Scenes.” In Vienna, Egon Schiele, who had completed the decisive transition from Art Nouveau to Expressionism, created his most compelling self-portraits on paper this year.
1913 is remembered as the defining moment of Modernism, not only in art but also in literature and music. It was a fascinating intellectual phenomenon just before the outbreak of the First World War, to which the art historian and journalist Florian Illies dedicated an entire book, “1913. The Summer of the Century”. What all the artistic currents of 1913 have in common is a yearning for entirely new forms of artistic expression, for an intense interpenetration of the emotional experience and the artistic form, an endeavor that finds immediate expression in Jawlensky's monumental heads. “Kopf in Bronzefarben – Bildnis Sacharoff” is, on account of its extraordinary expressionistic strength and emotional depth, also one of the strongest compositions that Jawlensky created during this exceptional year.





Jawlensky and Sacharoff – Friendship, Fascination and Inspiration
Jawlensky and the modern avant-garde dancer Alexander Sacharoff were to become close friends in 1905. In his memoirs, Jawlensky wrote: For several years, we were always together, and he was with us almost every day. The years of our friendship were exciting, for Sacharoff is an intelligent, witty, sensitive, and talented person. [..] I always watched him dance. He loved and understood my art deeply. (Quoted from: Lebenserinnerungen, in: A. v. J. Reisen. Freunde. Wandlungen, Museum am Ostwall, Dortmund 1998, p. 113)
In 1910, Sacharoff caused a sensation with his first expressionist dance performance in the concert hall at the Royal Odeon in Munich. He wore self-designed costumes, and the music was composed by the Russian Thomas von Hartmann, who would later become an author of the “Blauer Reiter” almanac. The Munich “Neueste Nachrichten” reported on the first performance on June 4, 1910: “The venue was well attended, especially by ladies; the Russian and Schwabing colony seemed to be in full attendance. The stage was covered with black cloth and divided by black drapes. An excellent string quartet and a harpist played behind the drapery, and Alexander Sacharoff, the new dance artist, came on stage.” (Quoted from: Bernd Fäthke, Jawlensky und seine Weggefährten im neuen Licht, Munich 2004, p. 132)



While the unsuspecting audience and press were shocked by the modern dance performances and the dancers' androgynous appeal, the Munich avant-garde was fascinated with Sacharoff's progressive dance art, which is not characterized by a fixed choreography but by the informal and direct expression of emotions. This endeavor was also central to Jawlensky's painting in those years. The salon of Jawlensky's partner Marianne von Werefkin on Giselastraße in Schwabing, which was the meeting place of the avant-garde at the time, also offered rich intellectual inspiration for Jawlensky's painting: “The Munich colony of Russian aristocrats and artists met at her salon. [..] They talked about nothing but art. I felt as though that was all I lived for,” recalled the young expressionist dancer Clotilde von Derp, who would later become Alexander Sacharoff's wife (quoted from: Frank M. Peter, Rainer Stamm, Die Sacharoffs. Zwei Tänzer aus dem Umkreis des Blauen Reiter, Bremen 2002, p. 161). In the present “Head in Bronze Colors – Portrait Sacharoff,” Jawlensky's deep admiration and friendly bond with Sacharoff is not the only aspect that finds immediate expression; his enthusiasm for the new, the exotic and the changing self-dramatization, as characteristic of Sacharoff's dance performances of those years, is also addressed. At the height of European Modernism, Jawlensky's fascination with Sacharoff and modern dance is convincingly merged with his expressive painting full of form and color. The enormous artistic quality of this piece lies in the fascinating balance between figuration and abstraction, between elements of portraiture and a free stylization of form and color. “Head in Bronze Colors – Portrait Sacharoff” is not a portrait in a traditional sense; it is much more the direct expression of Jawlensky's spiritual and emotional sensation as a protagonist of European Modernism in the significant year 1913. [MvL/JS]



“Kopf in Bronzefarben – Bildnis Sacharoff” and the scandalized avant-garde
The scandal seemed perfect: Jawlensky's “Kopf in Bronzefarben – Bildnis Sacharoff” was one of the main artistic figures caricatured in a 1915 cartoon for the first exhibition of the New Munich Secession (1914): Titled “In a modern exhibition”, the painting from 1913, which was as impressive as it was obviously provocative, hung opposite Piet Mondrian's “Blossoming Trees” and other works by Dutch artists, which, however, had not been shown in Munich but only in the second exhibition of the “Moderne Kunst Kring” in the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam in 1912. To Eugen Kirchner, caricaturist and founding member of the Munich Secession, this made no difference: He juxtaposed the two exhibition events and gave free rein to his biting mockery when he had the museum attendant mutter to himself about the incomprehensible aesthetics: “Every day, this gentleman stands in front of the crazy painting [= Mondrian]; either he's crazy himself or he painted it!”
“Kopf in Bronzefarben – Bildnis Sacharoff” is not only referenced in this caricature, but also caricatured itself: When the illustrator Kirchner shows the head of the well-known dancer on a naked torso, and complements this erotically distorted scene with a kissable mouth in the upper right corner, the criticism and animosity not only towards Modernism but also towards Jawlensky's work is deliberately emphasized. “Kopf in Bronzefarben – Bildnis Sacharoff” becomes a prominent example of the scandalized avant-garde.
The members of the 'Neue Münchener Secession' were criticized as 'art imitators', a familiar reproach, which the art historian, writer and journalist Georg Jakob Wolf addressed in the magazine 'Die Kunst für alle' (Art for Everyone), stating: “The list of complaints displayed at the Kunstverein contained things that may have come from a good place, but they went beyond objectivity without a second thought. Above all, it is wrong to see nothing but a bunch of dilettantes in the members of the Neue Secession, a bunch of people who want to cover up their incompetence with cheap bluff.” (Die Kunst für alle, 1914, pp. 278-280) The tenor of the criticism of Modernism became clear time and again, prompting, for example, the ever-provocative gallerist Herwarth Walden to compile an ironically language-debunking “Lexikon der deutschen Kunstkritik” (Lexicon of German Art Criticism) from newspaper reviews of the “Blauer Reiter” and “Futuristen” exhibitions and the “Erster Deutscher Herbstsalon” (First German Autumn Salon) at his Galerie Sturm in Berlin. (Flyer for the 'Erster Deutscher Herbstsalon, Berlin' 1913; SPK, Manuscript Department)
From the outset, the progressive, even radical New Munich Secession had to defend itself against verbal attacks: “We are called degenerate and insane, corrupters of youth, purveyors of rubbish and imitators of our enemies' art.” These are neologisms that would become arguments in the relentless fight against modernism from 1933, 20 years later. [MvL]




The Provenance
“Kopf in Bronzefarben – Bildnis Sacharoff” boasts an impressive exhibition history. Not only was it selected for the 1914 exhibition of the Neue Münchener Secession, it was also part of the first major retrospective of the artist in 1920/21. At that time, Jawlensky's works toured Germany in varying combinations. It is no longer possible to reconstruct exactly how many stops the exhibition made and how many times “Kopf in Bronzefarben – Bildnis Sacharoff” was on display. What we do know for sure is that it was shown at the renowned Frankfurter Kunstsalon of Ludwig Schames at the end of 1920, from where it traveled to the Nassauischer Kunstverein in Wiesbaden, which organized the next grand show at the “Neues Museum”. The exhibition in Wiesbaden was nothing short of a tremendous success. “Dear little, big Alexey Georgewitsch Jawlensky,” Jawlensky's agent Galka Scheyer wrote enthusiastically to Ascona on February 16, 1921, “20 pictures sold, 2 still being negotiated. Yes, my dear friend, a first great success!!”. “Fabry bought five pictures,” Galka rejoices, including ‘Kopf in Bronzefarben – Bildnis Sacharoff.

At the artist's friend: Edmund Fabry
Edmund Fabry is none other than the exhibition director of the Nassauischer Kunstverein. The Wiesbaden-based painter and architect was also a close friend of Jawlensky. “Head in Bronze Colors – Portrait of Sacharoff” apparently remained in Fabry's possession until his untimely death. When the architect died in 1939 at the young age of 47, the Nazi dictatorship was raging in Germany. Fabry was among those persecuted, and he had to close his architecture firm as a result of the November pogroms. His widow Anna Marie was half-Jewish, and she too was targeted by the Nazi henchmen. However, she was protected by marrying Hans-Jürgen Weinschenk, an American citizen, in 1941. He was a long-standing acquaintance, perhaps even a friend of her deceased husband. After Weinschenk also died in 1949, the childless widow sold artworks from the family collection from 1950 onwards – Paul Klee's “Hanging Fruits”, for example, today at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York (Fig.). At the same time, "Kopf in Bronzefarben – Bildnis Sacharoff" also found a new owner.

Through the mediation of Schenck zu Schweinsberg to Hans Lühdorf
Once again, a well-known Wiesbaden personality played a key role: Eberhard Freiherr Schenck zu Schweinsberg. The baron, who became the first full-time director of the Wiesbaden Art Gallery in 1929, and, as chairman of the Nassauischer Kunstverein, was a successor to Fabry, returned to Wiesbaden in 1948. Well connected as he was, he occasionally also worked as an art dealer. In the summer of 1950, he sold the painting 'Dunkler Kopf' from the possession of Fabry's widow to Hans Lühdorf, a lawyer and art collector from Düsseldorf. There is no doubt that “Dunkler Kopf” is identical with “Kopf in Bronzefarben – Bildnis Sacharoff”, as the painting is described in detail in the purchase correspondence. So now “Kopf in Bronzefarben – Bildnis Sacharoff” is in the hands of the next art lover. Like Fabry before him, Lühdorf also counted among the artist's close circle of confidants. After the “Degenerate Art” exhibition had sparked his enthusiasm for Expressionism, Lühdorf, at that time working at the Mainz District Court, repeatedly visited the already severely ill Jawlensky in 1940 and 1941. A decade later, Lühdorf could finally make his wish for a work from the master's early period come true with the acquisition of “Kopf in Bronzefarben – Bildnis Sacharoff”.
While Hans Lühdorf's collection of graphic art was donated to the Kunstmuseum Düsseldorf after the war, the haunting work “Dunkle Kopf” remained in his possession and was only sold from the estate in 1984.
Thus, “Head in Bronze Colors – Portrait of Sacharoff” is associated with two close friends who accompanied Jawlensky through two phases of his life: Edmund Fabry and Hans Lühdorf. These two collectors appreciated the artist's intentions and aspirations and understood his approach. We are now offering a new collector the opportunity to continue this rare series of connoisseur owners. [AT]