Woman with a Green Fan - Alexej von Jawlensky

A striking Expressionist portrait by Alexej von Jawlensky, featuring bold, non-naturalistic colours and simplified forms.

Alexej von Jawlensky, a central figure in the Expressionist movement, produced this portrait during his time in Munich. The work displays the artist's characteristic approach to the human face, where he reduces features to simplified, bold shapes and non-naturalistic colours. The subject is presented frontally, her gaze fixed directly upon the viewer, which creates a sense of immediate presence. Jawlensky employs a palette dominated by high-contrast tones. The bright yellow of the face is framed by a dark, almost black, head covering, while the background consists of energetic, brushy strokes of magenta and violet. The green fan held by the subject provides a cooling counterpoint to the warmer tones of the skin and the orange-red collar. The application of paint is thick and deliberate, with visible brushwork that emphasises the physical surface of the board. This portrait belongs to a period when Jawlensky was heavily influenced by the Fauvist use of colour and the structural simplification found in folk art. By stripping away extraneous detail, he focuses on the emotional resonance of the subject. The heavy outlines and flattened perspective remove the figure from a specific time or place, allowing the viewer to engage with the composition as a study in pure colour and form. The work is a clear example of the artist's transition toward the more abstract, meditative series of heads he would produce in later decades. It remains a striking example of early twentieth-century European modernism, capturing the intensity of the Expressionist search for subjective truth through the medium of oil paint.