Alexej von Jawlensky

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Alexej Georgewitsch von Jawlensky (?March 13, 1864 – March 15, 1941) was a Russian expressionist painter active in Germany. He was a member of the New Munich Artist's Association (Neue Künstlervereinigung München), the Blue Rider group (Der Blaue Reiter). He was also a member of the Die Blaue Vier (The Blue Four).

He was born in Torzhok, a town in the department of Tver, Russia, as the fifth child of Georgi von Jawlensky and his wife Alexandra (née Medwedewa). His family was aristocratic.

At the age of ten he moved with his family to Moscow. After a few years of military training, he became interested in painting, visiting the Moscow World Exposition c. 1880.

In 1896 he moved to Munich where he studied in the private school of Anton Ažbe. In Munich he met Wassily Kandinsky, and Marianne von Werefkin, other Russian artists and helped form the Neue Künstlervereinigung München. His work in this period was lush and richly coloured, but later moved towards abstraction with a simplified and formulaic style in a search to find the spiritual.

He died in Wiesbaden, Germany on March 15, 1941.

In November of 2003 his Schokko (Schokko mit Tellerhut) sold for US$8,296,000 and in February 2008 for GB£ 9,400,000 (US$18,4 million).

The 2006 Acoustic Ladyland album, Skinny Grin, features one of his works, 'Portrait of The Dancer Alexander Sacharoff', as its cover art.