The loose, energetic brushwork and areas of strong color in Head of a Woman are evidence that Jawlensky developed a style far removed from his formal art training at the St. Petersburg Academy of Art. Born in Russia in 1864, Jawlensky moved to Munich in 1896 and soon befriended fellow Russian émigré, Wassily Kandinsky, as well as other future members of the influential Blaue Reiter (Blue Rider) group, including Gabrielle Münter and Franz Marc. In 1912, Jawlensky formally joined the Blaue Reiter and began to seriously explore portraiture, concentrating with ever-greater focus on his signature motif, the human face. Eventually his faces would be reduced to a series of free floating abstracted signs suggesting mouths, eyes, and brows—mere excuses for his exploration of color. However, in this earlier portrait, the head still maintains a sense of mass and organic integrity. We can also note Jawlensky’s awareness of international avant-garde developments including Fauvist portraits and the solidly constructed painting surfaces of Paul Cézanne. Interestingly, Jawlensky painted a more abstracted portrait of a woman on the reverse side of this painting (see below), which appears to have been left unfinished.