Attributed to Alexej von Jawlensy, no coa, private collection, medium: oil, measurements: 30"WX40"H no frame, mint condition Biography: Alexej Georgewitsch von Jawlensky, surname also spelt as Yavlensky, was a Russian expressionist painter active in Germany. He was a key member of the New Munich Artist's Association, Der Blaue Reiter group and later the Die Blaue Vier. Expelled from Germany in 1914 due to WWI, he moved to Switzerland. He met Emmy Scheyer in 1916 (Jawlensky gave her the affectionate nickname, Galka, a Russian word for jackdaw), another artist who abandoned her own work to champion his in the United States.[6] After a hiatus in experimentation with the human form, Jawlensky produced perhaps his best-known series, the Mystical Heads (1917–19), and the Saviour’s Faces (1918–20), which are reminiscent of the traditional Russian Orthodox icons of his childhood.In 1921, Alexej von Jawlensky returned to Germany and took up residence in Wiesbaden. There, in 1922, he married Werefkin's former maid Hélène Nesnakomoff, the mother of his only son, Andreas, who was born before their marriage (1902). In 1924 he established the Blue Four, whose works, thanks to Scheyer's tireless promotion, were jointly exhibited in Germany and the US. From 1929 Jawlensky suffered from progressively crippling arthritis, which necessitated a reduced scale and finally forced a cessation in his painting in 1937.