Schokko with Wide-Brimmed Hat

Alexej von Jawlensky completed this vibrant portrait in 1910, depicting a fashionable woman in a wide-brimmed hat. Bold, unmixed colors, brilliant blues, reds, and greens, define the face like a mask. The subject's cool expression contrasts with the explosive palette, creating tension between remoteness and visual intensity.

Jawlensky, a Russian émigré in Munich, was a leading Expressionist painter associated with Der Blaue Reiter. This portrait sold at Sotheby's in 2008 for $18.6 million, setting his auction record. Dr. Clemens Weiler, Jawlensky's biographer, called it "a keypiece of Expressionism" for its synthesis of spiritual and formal innovation.