Variation: Christmas
c.1915
Alexei Jawlensky (Russian, 1864-1941)
Not on View

Jawlensky's Variations are colored, almost abstract meditations upon a few unchanging forms distilled from tree shapes. They clearly foreshadow the icon-like quality of his later work, with its eternal repetition of meditative signs. In a letter he wrote to Galka Scheyer in 1919, Jawlensky said, "Klee did not approve of. . .my pictures. . . .he said they are too intellectual, too thought out. I think all of that is wrong."

Details

  • Artist Name: Alexei Jawlensky (Russian, 1864-1941)
  • Title: Variation: Christmas
  • Date: c.1915
  • Medium: Oil and pencil on textured wove paper
  • Dimensions: 14-1/8 x 10-5/8 in. (36 x 27 cm)
  • Credit Line: Norton Simon Museum, The Blue Four Galka Scheyer Collection
  • Accession Number: P.1953.096
  • Copyright: © Norton Simon Museum

Object Information

The artist, gift to;
Galka Scheyer, by the 1920s;
Pasadena Art Institute, Pasadena, 1953-1954;
Pasadena Art Museum, Pasadena,1954-1975;
Norton Simon Museum, 1975.

The Blue Four: Feininger, Jawlensky, Kandinsky, Paul Klee

  • Santa Barbara, Faulkner Memorial Art Gallery, 1932-03-03 to 1932-03-13

The Blue Four: Feininger, Jawlensky, Kandinsky, Paul Klee

  • Arts Club of Chicago, 1932-04-01 to 1932-04-15
  • University of Chicago. Renaissance Society, 1932-04-16 to 1932-04-19

Jawlensky

  • Los Angeles, Stendahl Art Galleries, 1940-05-13 to 1940-06-01

Color and Form 1904 - 1914

  • San Diego, Fine Arts Gallery, 1971-11-20 to 1972-01-02
  • Oakland Museum, 1972-01-25 to 1972-03-05
  • Seattle Art Museum, 1972-03-24 to 1972-05-07

The Blue Four: Feininger, Jawlensky, Kandinsky, Paul Klee

  • Oakland Art Gallery, 1931-08 to 1931-09-14

Alexei Jawlensky

  • Norton Simon Museum, 1987-08-06 to 1987-12-13

My Four Kings: Galka Scheyer and the Blue Four

  • Norton Simon Museum, 2002-12-13 to 2003-04-14

Jawlensky: Meine liebe Galka!

  • Wiesbaden, Museum Wiesbaden, 2004-10-23 to 2005-03-13

Paths to Abstraction: Pioneers of Early 20th Century Painting

  • Norton Simon Museum, 1989-01-19 to 1990-01-14

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

Feininger, Jawlensky, Kandinsky, Paul Klee. The Blue Four Galka E. Scheyer Collection

  • Pasadena, Pasadena Art Museum, 1955-05-27 to 1955-08-30

Alexei Jawlensky (1864-1941)

  • Norton Simon Museum, 2007-05-04 to 2007-11-05

The Blue Four

The Galka Scheyer Collection: Klee, Nolde, Jawlensky, Moholy-Nagy, Schmidt-Rottluff, Schwitters, Archipenko, Kandinsky, Lissitzky, Feininger, Kirchner, Dix_1

  • La Jolla, Art Center in La Jolla, 1960-07-05 to 1960-08-14
  • The Blue Four Galka Scheyer Collection, Norton Simon Museum of Art at Pasadena, 1976, no. 121 p. 48
  • Jawlensky, Maria, Lucia Pieroni-Jawlensky, and Angelica Jawlensky, Alexej von Jawlensky: Catalogue Raisonné of the Oil Paintings, 1914-1933, 1992, no. 707
  • The Blue Four. Feininger, Jawlensky, Kandinsky, and Klee in the New World, 1997, no. 35 p. 148, 340
  • Barnett, Vivian Endicott, The Blue Four Collection at the Norton Simon Museum, 2002, no. 134 pp. 117-118
  • Museum Wiesbaden, Jawlensky: Meine liebe Galka!, 2004, pp. 118, 120

Additional Artwork by Artist

Abstract Head: Small Head on Wood Alexei Jawlensky 1921
Head Alexei Jawlensky 1912
Head Inclined to the Right, with Closed Eyes Alexei Jawlensky c. 1922

Image reproduction permission may be granted for scholarly or arts related commercial use. All image requests, regardless of their intended purpose, should be submitted via the reproduction request form.

Images may be protected by copyright and other intellectual property rights. Additional permission may be required.

Approved requests for the reproduction of an image will receive a contract detailing all fees and conditions of use of the image. Upon receipt of both the signed contract and full payment, the Office of Rights and Reproductions will provide the image. A complimentary copy of the published material must be provided to the Norton Simon Museum.

Reproduction Request Form