The magnificent collection of Jawlensky paintings came to the Norton Simon Museum from the collection of Emmy (Galka) Scheyer, a lifelong friend and promoter of the artist's work. A 1916 visit to an exhibition of Jawlensky's paintings prompted art student Emmy Scheyer to meet the artist; in 1917 she spent several months with his family in Switzerland, where she served as a model for his new group of portraits. Jawlensky frequently talked about the spiritual language of painting. This head, with its tilted pose, its prominent eyes, brow, and line of the nose, as well as its richness of surface, is reminiscent of the religious imagery of the artist's Russian youth. Scheyer returned to Germany in 1919; it was during this period of separation that Jawlensky wrote to her of a dream he had experienced in which she appeared to him in the form of a bird. From that time on, Jawlensky referred to her as "Galka," the Russian word for blackbird.
Details
- Artist Name: Alexei Jawlensky (Russian, 1864-1941)
- Title: Mystical Head: Galka
- Date: 1917
- Medium: Oil and pencil on tan textured cardboard
- Dimensions: 15-1/2 x 12 in. (39.4 x 30.5 cm)
- Credit Line: Norton Simon Museum, The Blue Four Galka Scheyer Collection
- Accession Number: P.1968.01
- Copyright: © Norton Simon Museum
Object Information
Clemens Weiler, Wiesbaden, by 1957-January, 1967;
Siegfried Adler, Lugano, sold 1968 to;
Pasadena Art Museum, Pasadena, until 1975;
Norton Simon Museum, 1975.
Alexej von Jawlensky 1864 - 1941
- Kunsthalle Bern, 1957-05-11 to 1957-06-16
- Saarbrucken, Saarlandmuseum, to
- Dusseldorf, Kunstverein, to
- Hamburg, Kunstverein, to
- Bremen, Kunsthalle, to
- Stuttgart, Wurttembergischer Kunstverein, to
- Mannheim, Stadtische Kunsthalle, to
Alexej Jawlensky
- Wiesbaden, Stadtisches Museum, 1964-03-22 to 1964-05-31
Alexej von Jawlensky
- Munich, Stadtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, 1964-07-17 to 1964-09-13
A Centennial Exhibition of Paintings by Alexej Jawlensky
- Leonard Hutton Galleries, 1965-02-17 to 1965-03
- Baltimore Museum of Art, 1965-04-20 to 1965-05-23
Alexej Jawlensky: Bilder aus den Jahren 1916 - 1938
- Kunstverein Braunschweig, 1965-09-26 to 1965-11-07
Gaze: Portraiture After Ingres
- Norton Simon Museum, 2009-10-30 to 2010-04-05
Maven of Modernism: Galka Scheyer in California
- Norton Simon Museum, 2017-04-07 to 2017-09-25
The Blue Four and Their Contemporaries
- Norton Simon Museum, 1991-06-20 to 1992-05-24
Alexei Jawlensky (1864-1941)
- Norton Simon Museum, 2007-05-04 to 2007-11-05
Die Blaue Vier: Feininger, Jawlensky, Kandinsky, Klee in der Neuen Welt
- Kunstmuseum Bern, 1997-12-05 to 1998-03-01
- Dusseldorf, Kunstsammlung Nordhein-Westfalen, 1998-03-28 to 1998-06-28
The Blue Four
The Blue Four-Galka Scheyer Collection From The Norton Simon Museum
- Henry Art Gallery, 1997-07-17 to 1997-10-05
Visions and Icons: the Art of Alexei Jawlensky
- Norton Simon Museum, 1990-01-18 to 1991-04-14
The Spirit of Modernism: Galka Scheyer in the New World
- Norton Simon Museum, 1994-11-17 to 1996-01-14
Permanent and Loan Collection, 1973
- Pasadena Museum of Modern Art, 1973-01-30 to 1973-12-31
Bauhaus Painters; Spirit of Modernism: Wassily Kandinsky, Paul Klee, Lyonel Feininger, Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, El Lissitzky, Oskar Schlemmer, Alexander Archipenko, Alexei Jawlensky and Others
- Seoul, Ho-Am Art Museum, 1996-02-08 to 1996-04-28
My Four Kings: Galka Scheyer and the Blue Four
- Norton Simon Museum, 2002-12-13 to 2003-04-14
- Haas, Robert B., Du, p. 19
- Mochon, Anne, Alexej Jawlensky, p. 150
- Weiler, Clemens, Braunschweiger Blätter für Kunst und Kultur, 1958, p. 5
- Weiler, Clemens, Alexej Jawlensky: Heads, Faces, Meditations, 1971, no. 176
- The Blue Four Galka Scheyer Collection, Norton Simon Museum of Art at Pasadena, 1976, no. 135 pp. 52, 67
- Jawlensky, Maria, Lucia Pieroni-Jawlensky, and Angelica Jawlensky, Alexej von Jawlensky: Catalogue Raisonné of the Oil Paintings, 1914-1933, 1992, no. 880
- Weiler, Clemens, Alexej von Jawlensky, 1995, no. 191
- The Blue Four. Feininger, Jawlensky, Kandinsky, and Klee in the New World, 1997, no. 42 pp. 33, 341
- Barnett, Vivian Endicott, The Blue Four Collection at the Norton Simon Museum, 2002, no. 150 pp. 134-136
- Belgin, Tayfun, Bild und Wissenschaft - Der Umgang mit dem künstlerischen Erbe von Hodler bis Jawlensky, 2003,
- Wünsche, Isabel, Galka E. Scheyer and the Blue Four: Correspondence 1924 - 1945, 2005, Plate V p.332
- Alexej von Jawlensky / Georges Rouault : Sehen mit geschlossenen Augen, 2017, Abb. 7 66 ; 67 (ill.)
- Gilbert Holzgang, Galka Scheyer : Ein Leben für Kunst und Kreativität, 2023, p. 77 (ill.)
Additional Artwork by Artist
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