The work of Lyonel Feininger spans critical decades in the development of Modernism. His work evades exact categorization by movement, though it functions at the intersection of German Expressionism, Cubism and Bauhaus experimentation. The works for which he is best known articulate the planar shifts and jagged lines of Cubism through an Orphist color palette, and explore humankind’s relationship to architecture, mechanization, and industrialization. Feininger was born in New York City to German-American parents, but he spent most of his life and career in Europe, aligning with German Expressionism and the European avant-garde. He moved to Berlin to study music at the age of sixteen, but almost immediately turned to the visual arts, enrolling instead at the Kunstgewerbeschule and later the Akademie der Künste. He worked as a caricaturist for American and German magazines including Harper’s Round Table, Berliner Tageblatt, and Humoristische Blätter, and exhibited in the Berlin Secession exhibitions from 1901 to 1903. He spent 1906 to 1908 working in Paris, and expanding his painterly perspective upon encountering the works of Robert Delaunay and the Parisian avant-garde. He began exhibiting with Der Blaue Reiter in 1913, with Cubo-Expressionist compositions with imagery that consistently recalls architectural and nautical structures. In 1919, Walter Gropius invited him to teach at the newly formed Bauhaus, where he served as the head of the print workshop. After his work was declared degenerate by the Nazis, Feininger returned to the United States in 1937, where he spent the remainder of his life, experimenting with freer applications of color in addition to photography. Multiple museums have organized posthumous retrospectives since his death in 1956, including the Dallas Museum for Contemporary Arts in 1963, the Pasadena Art Museum in 1966, the Kunsthaus Zürich in 1973, and the Whitney Museum in 2011. Feininger’s paintings consistently sell for record numbers; Jesuits III sold at Sotheby’s for $23.2 million, three times its estimate. His work features in major museums including the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C.; and the Kunstmuseum Basel.

Lyonel Feininger

Modern & Contemporary Discoveries

Lyonel Feininger 1871-1956 Traum-Dorf II (Dream-Village II) signed (lower left), titled (lower centre) and dated Freitag d. 11. Jan. 1918 (lower right); with the Feininger estate stamp (on the reverse) ink and charcoal on paper 23.5 by 31.5 cm. 9¼ by 12 ⅜ in. Executed in 1918. Achim Moeller, Managing Principal of The Lyonel Feininger Project LLC, New York - Berlin has confirmed the authenticity of this work, which is registered under no. 444-05-02-11. The work is accompanied by a certificate of authenticity.

View 1 of Lot 21: Traum-Dorf II (Dream-Village II)

traum-dorf ii (dream-village ii)

Lyonel Feininger 1871-1956 Untitled (Two Steamers) signed (lower left) and dated 20.9.36 (lower right); with the Feininger estate stamp (on the reverse) watercolour and ink on paper 26.5 by 37.9 cm. 10⅜ by 14⅞ in. Executed in 1936. Achim Moeller, Managing Principal of The Lyonel Feininger Project LLC, New York - Berlin has confirmed the authenticity of this work, which is registered under no. 453-05-02-11. The work is accompanied by a certificate of authenticity.

View 1 of Lot 43: Untitled (Two Steamers)

untitled (two steamers)

Lyonel Feininger 1871-1956 Vor Anker (At anchor) signed and titled (lower left), dated 5 10 34 (lower right); with the Feininger estate stamp (lower right) watercolour and ink on paper 26,5 by 37,9 cm. 10 ⅜ by 14 ⅞ in. Executed in 1934. Achim Moeller, Managing Principal of The Lyonel Feininger Project LLC, New York - Berlin has confirmed the authenticity of this work, which is registered under no. 451-05-02-11. The work is accompanied by a certificate of authenticity.

vor anker (at anchor)

Lyonel Feininger 1871-1956 Untitled (Houses) signed (lower left) and dated 8.XI.50 (lower right); with the Feininger estate stamp (lower right) watercolour, crayon, pen and ink on paper 41.5 by 48.4 cm. 16⅜ by 19 in. Executed in 1950. Achim Moeller, Managing Principal of The Lyonel Feininger Project LLC, New York - Berlin has confirmed the authenticity of this work, which is registered under no. 5555-06-02-11. The work is accompanied by a certificate of authenticity.

untitled (houses)

On the Quay Wall (Auf der Quaimauer), by <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/search?query=Lyonel+Feininger&amp;pfilters.dateRange=upcoming" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Lyonel Feininger</a>, 1921.<ul><li>Lyonel Feininger (American-German, 1871-1956).</li><li>Woodcut on Wove paper.</li><li>Hand signed.</li><li>This work is presented unframed.</li></ul> This original woodcut is hand signed in pencil "Lyonel Feininger" at the lower left margin. It was published by Euphorion Verlag, Berlin in 1921/22 in a limited edition of 125, of which only 100 were printed on wove paper. It was included in the album Die Schaffenden [The Creators] volume 4, number 1, and the blindstamp of the publisher can be seen at the lower right corner. The founding of the Künstlergruppe Brücke and the birth of Expressionism also marked the beginning of a ‘print revival’ in Germany. After the predominantly reproductive or illustrative print production of the 19th century, prints and in particular woodcuts began to be seen as a powerful and important medium of artistic expression. In order to disseminate and promote this revived print production, artists and artists’ collectives began to issue portfolios, and gallerists and critics, such as Herwarth Walden (1879-1941) and Paul Westheim (1886-1963), published magazines and journals which included original prints. While some were very short-lived, Paul Westheim’s publication Die Schaffenden, ran from 1918-32 with four issues per year. Each issue consisted of a portfolio containing ten original prints, mostly but not exclusively by German artists, including some of the leading figures of the German avant-garde, such as the Brücke-artists Heckel, Pechstein and Schmidt-Rottluff, and satirists such as George Grosz, as well as lesser-known artists of the time. No other periodical came to showcase and represent the artistic life of the inter-war years to a similar degree.

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