Brief Biography-Alexei (Alexej, Alexey) Von Jawlensky was born in Torzhok, Russia in 1864. He studied for seven years at The Imperial Russian Academy of Arts in Saint Petersburg and came under Ilya Repin and his students’ influence. In 1894, he travelled to Munich with Marianne von Werefkin, a Russian expressionist, where he encountered Ferdinand Hodler and Wassily Kandinsky. Jawlensky was instrumental in forming the Der Blaue Reiter group with Kandinsky and other Munich artists. One of their theories was that ‘blue’ is a pure colour, and the ‘rider’ would bring them forward and away from academicism. That is at least one vague interpretation of their beliefs. The war broke up the group in 1914, and in 1923, he started Die Blaue Vier with Kandinsky, Paul Klee and two German painters. They held exhibitions in America and Germany. Jawlensky settled in Wiesbaden, where he died in 1941.