MARIANNE von WEREFKIN, quotes on her colorful painting art & life with Jawlensky + biography facts of the Russian woman-artist in Blue Rider / Blaue Reiter
Marianne Werefkin (1864 – 1941), with her artist quotes. The famous Russian female painter who got involved with her friend Jawlensky in Blaue Reiter / Blue Rider in Munich. Werefkin created an expressive and very colorful painting art; moreover she was then Jawlensky’s muse. With other Blaue Reiter artists Kandinsky, Gabriele Münter and her Russian ‘husband’, the painter Alexej von Jawlensky Marianne von Werefkin painted a lot ‘open air’ in and around Murnau. In 1914 she fled with Jawlensky to Switzerland, but after 1918 they parted, and she stayed in Ascona, Italy till her death.
* At the bottom you find some art links for more biography facts of Marianne Werefkin. – the editor.
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Marianne von Werefkin: ‘Woman with Lantern’, 1922 |
Marianne Werefkin; her artist quotes on painting and life – the Russian woman-painter in Blaue Reiter / Blue Rider
– You for whom I have looked so hard without ever finding. You (‘The Unknown’ she is writing to, in her letters, fh) whom I have longed for, called after, without ever seeing you come, you who are always present without ever existing – I am writing to you now. You who are basically only myself, but a much bigger and more noble self, an ingenious self, a self far from me, as real as the whole distance between the dream and the reality.
* source of her quote, from: ‘Lettres à un Inconnu, 1901 – 1905’, Vol 1 ‘My beautiful One, My Unique!’, Marianne von Werefkin, Museo Communale, Ascona; as quoted in “Voicing our visions, -Writings by women artists”, ed. by Mara R. Witzling, Universe New York, 1991, p. 132. (famous Russian woman-artist and wife of the painter Jawlensky, both participating in Blaue Reiter / Blue Rider & creating expressive colorful paintings)
– Oh, If I had been able to realize you with my hand. If the painted canvas was able to give me your dear image. The labor was you (‘The Unknown’, fh) the work of art was me – I have kissed your head, I have looked elsewhere… …You are neither good, nor charitable. You do not know how to love. – You are only great and beautiful. I sacrificed to tenderness and still, my self, you do not know how to love.
* her quote on her ‘Self’, from : ‘Lettres à un Inconnu, 1901 – 1905’, Vol 1 ‘My beautiful One, My Unique!’, Marianne von Werefkin, Museo Communale, Ascona; as quoted in “Voicing our visions, -Writings by women artists”, ed. by Mara R. Witzling, Universe New York, 1991, p. 132.
-…I need to immerse my gaze in your eyes, it is in their mirror that I see myself as I would like to be, and it is only in seeing myself as I feel I should be. I think, therefore I am, my Beautiful One, to both of us, every day we recreate the world, every day a paradise falls in our hands, to darken in the dust of many paradises… .The paradises will fall in our hands, will sink in the dust and will be born again according to our will.
* source of her artist quote on her Art muse, from: ‘Lettres à un Inconnu, 1901 – 1905’, Vol 1 ‘My beautiful One, My Unique!’, Marianne von Werefkin, Museo Communale, Ascona; as quoted in “Voicing our visions, -Writings by women artists”, ed. by Mara R. Witzling, Universe New York, 1991, p. 132.
– Why should we do as those who do not have other joys than to believe, as night falls, in their double beds… …that it is to be great and sanctified by love to jostle the companions of their bed. Our passion must be like our love – illusory and artistic, having no other end than the desire to be beautiful. To remain beautiful in unsated (?) passion….
* source of her quote on her art in her life, taken from: ‘Lettres à un Inconnu, 1901 – 1905’, Vol 1 ‘My beautiful One, My Unique!’, Marianne von Werefkin, Museo Communale, Ascona; as quoted in “Voicing our visions, -Writings by women artists”, ed. by Mara R. Witzling, Universe New York, 1991, p. 132.
– All bores me in the world of facts, I see an end, a limit to all things and my heart thirsts for the infinite and for eternity. How to speak of the feeling, so serious, that has seized me? …Human activity has its greatest efforts always fall back on broken wings. Oh, thus I close my eyes. I do not wish to see, to hear, to love, or to act. Only artistic creation, infinite, unlimited, work of god in man, appears desirable to me. It only is the truth and only it is the illusion…
* her artist quote on her desire to create in art: ‘Lettres à un Inconnu, 1901 – 1905’, Vol 1 ‘My beautiful One, My Unique!’, Marianne von Werefkin, Museo Communale, Ascona; as quoted in “Voicing our visions, -Writings by women artists”, ed. by Mara R. Witzling, Universe New York, 1991, p. 132. (famous Russian woman painter and married with painter Jawlensky, both active in Blaue Reiter / Blue Rider; & creating expressive colorful paintings)
-..I want a lovely life; in order for it to be, harmony and style are necessary. I avow mine to the key of aesthetic sentiment – the constant permanent creation everywhere and in every one. All is false there, all is true. The truth is the desire to see falsely. I do not want the naked truth; it is the principle of my life. It is that which makes my life one which is artistic and complete. Feelings, events, people and things, such as they are, are nothing to me. I wish them invented, illusory, false in so far as true life and in so far as art.
* source of her quote on the relation between art and truth, in: ‘Lettres à un Inconnu, 1901 – 1905’, Vol 1 ‘My beautiful One, My Unique!’, Marianne von Werefkin, Museo Communale, Ascona; as quoted in “Voicing our visions, -Writings by women artists”, ed. by Mara R. Witzling, Universe New York, 1991, p. 132.
– I want to work. It is an obsession. I am gnawed at the heart by an excruciating desire to manipulate color… I see figures, with an incredible intensity, pass before my eyes. Let us analyze this – if it is possible to toss it. Why do you no longer work? Why work again? Faith has left me – the habit of putting myself into the background, has done the rest. Am I a true artist? Yes, yes, yes. Am I a woman? Alas. Yes, yes, yes. Are the two (probably Jawlensky and Marinanne, fh) able to work as a pair? No, no, no. Who will take up the desires -?… …The work of my life, this talent (probably Jawlensky, fh) that I protect with all my interest, with all my affection, it must be alone in the dwelling. Reason says, calm yourself. But the great passion in me, and my call to work, destroys all the calm acquisitions of my life.
* source of her quote on being a woman and an artist, and its difficulties in life, from: ‘Lettres à un Inconnu, 1901 – 1905’, Vol 1 ‘My beautiful One, My Unique!’, Marianne von Werefkin, Museo Communale, Ascona; as quoted in “Voicing our visions, -Writings by women artists”, ed. by Mara R. Witzling, Universe New York, 1991, p. 132.
– I have lost faith in myself and that is why my life has gone to the devil. Why: I have been strict with myself. I love art with a passion so selfless that when I believed that I saw that I would be able to serve it better by abstaining myself, so that another (Jawlensky?, fh) could succeed – I did it. And that faith was so great that it has endured, against all the tempests. You, you, (Jawlensky?, fh) in loving me like an imperceptible current, you have destroyed the calm, the serenity of my life. It was difficult but so intact… …And the man to whom I have given all: my spirit and my heart, my inspiration and my affection, my cares and my concerns, my energy, my faith and my confidence, to whom I have opened all the treasures of my genius and of my soul, who enjoyed understanding and help – this man (Jawlensky, fh)looks upon me with indifference and prefers kitchen-maids (Jawlensky’s next relation and his later wife who gave him his first child, fh) to me.
* source of her quote on difficult life with Jawlensky, from: ‘Lettres à un Inconnu, 1901 – 1905’, Vol 1 ‘My beautiful One, My Unique!’, Marianne von Werefkin, Museo Communale, Ascona; as quoted in “Voicing our visions, -Writings by women artists”, ed. by Mara R. Witzling, Universe New York, 1991, p. 132.
– Before the blank canvas, the unrealized work, completely in the artist’s head, must seem to him equal to the greatest. To say that which has never been said – is the reason for all artistic work. But only outside of the work should the artist worthily get down on his knees before the great artists of the past… .Rembrandt in our days would be Rembrandt again, because the work of the master is his self. But in order to be Rembrandt in our days, he would have used new ways that would give a new culture.
* source: her quote on the creation of a new and modern painting art: ‘Lettres à un Inconnu, 1901 – 1905’, Vol 1 ‘My beautiful One, My Unique!’, Marianne von Werefkin, Museo Communale, Ascona; as quoted in “Voicing our visions, -Writings by women artists”, ed. by Mara R. Witzling, Universe New York, 1991, p. 132.
– ..Oh my dear friend (Alexej von Jawlensky / The Unknown?, fh), you whose voice called me towards my beautiful past, oh how I love you because you are young, you serve the idea, you understand the beauty of a life devoted completely to abstraction. Oh the devil you have done me, and the good of this devil. There is an atrocious page in my existence… …I am not a woman. Neither love nor the family satisfies me. I don’t like the baby. I detest the household. I love all works of the human genius, I adore art the beauties of nature and of the heart. The beautiful, the beautiful in all such as love and such as life.
* quote on the desire for Beauty in life, in ‘Lettres à un Inconnu, 1901 – 1905’, Vol 1 ‘My beautiful One, My Unique!’, Marianne von Werefkin, Museo Communale, Ascona; as quoted in “Voicing our visions, -Writings by women artists”, ed. by Mara R. Witzling, Universe New York, 1991, p. 132. (famous Russian woman painter – love and muse of the Russian painter Jawlensky; both were active in Blaue Reiter / Blue Rider, creating expressive colorful paintings)
– The artist is the only one who detaches himself from life, opposes his personality against it, he is the only one who orders things as he wishes them to be in place of things as they are. Thus for him life is not a fait accompli, it is something to remake, to do again. He takes possession of his gifts in order to continue, to change, He makes his choice, it is he who creates the conceptions of beautiful and ugly, those are the things to preserve, the things to change. At the seat of the things that it is necessary to change he puts his desires, his aspirations, in one word, his personality…
* her quote on being an artist and reshaping life, in: ‘Lettres à un Inconnu, 1901 – 1905’, Vol 1 ‘My beautiful One, My Unique!’, Marianne von Werefkin, Museo Communale, Ascona; as quoted in “Voicing our visions, -Writings by women artists”, ed. by Mara R. Witzling, Universe New York, 1991, p. 132.
– Art is not hysteria. Art is as natural to man as is thought, it is a normal function of his brain. Art is observation and consciousness. It is not an instinct, vague, indecisive, sickly. Art is an eternal source – life, and an unlimited expression, the individual. These two elements, well-adapted, make masterpieces.. ..All speech that a human being finds to give a new impression is of art. Why believe that the speech must be epileptic to become art?.. …Such is art. It is the product of life and the individual. It is born from their clash, from the received impression. But this impression is made once, for then it is no longer, neither life nor the individual…
* her artist quotes on art, related to life, in: ‘Lettres à un Inconnu, 1901 – 1905’, Vol 1 ‘My beautiful One, My Unique!’, Marianne von Werefkin, Museo Communale, Ascona; as quoted in “Voicing our visions, -Writings by women artists”, ed. by Mara R. Witzling, Universe New York, 1991, p. 132.
Marianne von Werefkin, biography of the Russian woman painter, artist of Blaue Reiter / Blue Rider
Marianna Wladimirowna Werefkina, a member of ancient Russian nobility, was born on 29 August 1860 in the Russian town of Tula. She was well educated according to western standards and the young girl’s artistic talents were recognized early and encouraged. She had her first private academic drawing lessons at the age of fourteen. She was introduced to Illarion Michailowitsch Prjanischnikow, a member of the “Peredwischniki” (travelling painter), where she began her studies, by the Repin family. When her family moved to St. Petersburg in 1886 Marianne von Werefkin took private lessons under Repin.
While hunting in 1888 she accidentally shot her right hand which remained crippled after a lengthy period of recovery. By practising persistently she finally managed to use drawing and painting instruments with her right hand again. She soon reached a perfection in realist painting which gave her the reputation as “Russian Rembrandt”.
In 1891 the painter met Alexej von Jawlensky, who deeply fascinated her and whom she accompanied to Munich five years later. She put aside her own work and initiated a Salon which soon became a centre of lively artistic exchange. She also founded the “Lukasbruderschaft” of which also Kandinsky was a member.
A private crisis with Jawlensky culminated at the birth of a son in 1902 and Marianne von Werefkin was so badly effected that she needed to recover during extensive travels in France. She began painting again in 1906. She and Jawlensky spent several periods working with Kandinsky and Münter after their discovery of the picturesque town of Murnau in 1908.
They formed a new group: the “Neue Künstlervereinigung München”. When Wassily Kandinsky and Franz Marc distanced themselves from this group and formed the “Blauer Reiter”, Werefkin also began exhibiting together with this new group in 1913. She moved to Switzerland with Jawlensky in 1914. Another move in 1919 took the couple to Ascona where she joined the artist group “Großer Bär”. She and Jawlensky separated two years later and Marianne went to Italy, Ascona, where she lived and painted till her death. Marianne von Werefkin died in Ascona on 6 February 1938.
Marianne von Werefkin; art links for more biography facts and her art images; woman-artist in Blaue Reiter / Blue Rider
