Marianne von Werefkin

The owner of Die Sturm gallery Herwarth Walden recognized Marianne von Werefkin’s genius at an early date. She had a firm hold on the reins of the Blaue Reiter and defied tragic blows and the world war.

All those who painted her portrait depicted her as a young woman. Hers was the pulsating energy that drove everyone around her and gave them the courage to be modern: Jawlensky, Kandinsky, Muenter, Marc, Erma Bossi. As early as 1913 Else Lasker-Schueler described her as the “Blaue Reiter-Reit­erin”: Were­fkin had firm grip on the artist commu­nity.

"I am woman, am devoid of any creativity. I can under­stand all and create nothing … I lack the words to express my ideal. I seek the person, the man, who would personify this ideal. As woman, demanding that which would give her inner world expres­sion, I met Jawlensky … I thought I could create them in Jawlensky … A purely divine desire. Not attain­able on earth." Marianne von Werefkin

Was she indulging the genius cult of the 19th century, clinging to a bour­geois role model? Her fate brings to mind that of sculp­tress GelaForster, whose artistic activ­i­ties came to a halt following her marriage to Alexander Archipenko. Or that of the painter Minna Tube, who Max Beck­mann demanded not touch a paint­brush as long as she was married to him. It is only after about eight years that Mari­anne von Were­fkin, albeit secretly at first, began to paint again and eased herself away from her misbe­lief.

Werefkin, by Ilja Repin, 1888

In 1896, Were­fkin initially moved to Munich with Jawlensky and her young maid Helene Nesnako­moff, who was to bear Jawlensky’s son in 1902. Were­fkin rented a large double apart­ment in Gise­las­trasse 123 in Schwabing, where she forth­with hosted an influ­en­tial salon and which became a much frequented meeting point for the cosmopolitan avant-garde.

 

Together with Wassily Kandinsky, Gabriele Münter and Alexej Jawlensky, she founded the Neue Kuen­stlervere­ini­gung München (Artist Asso­ci­a­tion Munich) in 1909, which two years later would become the Blaue Reiter. From 1912 onwards, she becomes one of the most renowned STURM artists. Her gallery owner became so enam­ored with her painting “Herb­stidyll” (Autumn idyll) that he not only exhib­ited it but also turned the image into a STURM post­card, which he then used to market his artists and his STURM gallery.

She died in 1938 in Switzerland and was buried according to Russian Orthodox rites.

(From an article by Ekkehard Tanner in SchirnMag)
 

 https://www.schirn.de/en/magazine/context/between_life_crisis_and_world_war/

M. von Werefkin, by Gabriele Münter