Heilandsgesicht: Wächter

In Alexej von Jawlensky’s painting, the face itself becomes a picture. As a member of the Blue Rider artists’ group, he had already created portraits in his Expressionist early work. However, it was not until he emigrated to Switzerland in 1914 at the outbreak of World War I that the human face acquired its overriding importance for the Russian artist, as exemplified in this work.

The oval of the head occupies the whole of the pictorial space. Black, almond-shaped eyes with cat-like pupils look at the viewer attentively, while the nose and mouth are abstracted to lines. The face’s transparent immateriality is created by the muted use of color: pastel hues for the chin and cheek, while smaller areas of color beneath the eyes set a more intense accent.

In this painting, which belongs to a series of »Saints’ Faces«, Jawlensky presents us with a supra-individual figure. It has neither age nor gender and is reminiscent of a religious icon. As a symbol of spiritual values, it dispenses with any resemblance to a living model, although it still possesses an extremely captivating quality, not least due to the asymmetrical eyes with their intense gaze.