Hyacinth

The Jawlensky most people know, the blazing faces and the Murnau landscapes, comes after 1908. This hyacinth is from 1902, from the years when he was still working out what colour could do, and he did most of that work on still lifes. Near the end of his life he dictated his memories to a friend, and he described those pictures plainly. He was never satisfied with them, he said. He painted still lifes without any particular direction, mostly fruit, and kept pushing towards stronger and stronger colours in search of a harmonious tone. It was not yet his own language. Here the subject is a single potted plant, set on a tall, narrow canvas a little over half a metre high and signed at the lower left, A. Jawlensky. A few years later, in Murnau, he would paint almost everything on cardboard. This one is still on canvas, and the Lenbachhaus bought it in 1963.