Lot Essay
Feininger held a lifelong fascination for ships, inspired by his childhood spent playing by the shores of the Hudson and the East River. In a letter written in 1937, the year in which he painted Vision einer Bark, Feininger recalled "the waterfront of Manhattan was a magnificent spectacle: tall ships, forests of masts and masts and yards, long slanting-up bowsprits, reaching from above fantastic figureheads right across West Street almost to the buildings opposite, stood side by side for many hundreds of yards along the shore. The Hudson, the East River, each crawled with sailing sloops, schooners, brigs, ships and paddlewheel steamers" (in a letter to Theodore Spicer-Simpson, see H. Hess, op. cit., pp. 2-3).
Feininger revealed the intrigue boats held for him and his intimate knowledge of them not only in his paintings, but also in the intricate model ships he made all his life. "His sailing boats and models were tried out on the pond in Central Park. There is no better way to experience the relation between design and performance than by sailing a boat...Beyond the joy of making things, young Feiniger's enthusiasm for model yachts gave him an early lesson in the dynamics of movement. His great days in Central Park were those 'when the three captains (Arvidsen the Swede, truest old salt of the group, poor as a churchmouse, silent, scraggly-bearded and gray, and with the weather-wise eyes of an old experienced seaman; Capt. Grant, the American,...and, so to speak, the engineer and scientist in the construction of models; and lastly, Tarleton, the Englishman and gentleman yachtsman who brought along his deep and narrow cutters) came to the pond. In those times there was something to look at indeed, and when the 'captains' brought out their newest creations, the three foot class, there was no end of excitement for the boys at the pond'" (H. Hess, ibid., pp. 3-4, quoting a letter written by Feininger to his son Lux dated 14 April 1943).
Vision einer Bark was painted in Berlin in 1935. He had been teaching at the Bauhaus in Dessau which then moved to Berlin before it was closed by the Nazis in 1993. Feininger stayed in Berlin until just before the outbreak of war when he left for America in 1937.
The present work centres around a ship viewed from afar, depicted almost floating on an endless, calm sea. The painting is filled with mysticism: the boat seems to divide in two of perhaps three ships moving in different directions. According to Hans Hess the years from 1933 to 1937, when Feininger lived in Berlin, marked a period when "he was preoccupied, as never before, with the 'object'. The object was becoming more independent...It was as if he held a toy in his hand - a sailing boat he had made himself- his eyes closed as he felt it." (ibid., p. 130). The atmosphere of tranquility embodied in Vision einer Bark, partly created by Feininger's use of a subtle palette of mainly green and yellow tones, can be aptly summed up in a phrase which Hess used to describe two other paintings of this period: "the whole picture is a dream with the magic of childhood" (ibid.).
To be included in the forthcoming Lyonel Feininger catalogue raisonné currently being prepared by Achim Moeller, New York.
We are extremely grateful to Achim Moeller for his assistance in compiling this catalogue entry.
Feininger revealed the intrigue boats held for him and his intimate knowledge of them not only in his paintings, but also in the intricate model ships he made all his life. "His sailing boats and models were tried out on the pond in Central Park. There is no better way to experience the relation between design and performance than by sailing a boat...Beyond the joy of making things, young Feiniger's enthusiasm for model yachts gave him an early lesson in the dynamics of movement. His great days in Central Park were those 'when the three captains (Arvidsen the Swede, truest old salt of the group, poor as a churchmouse, silent, scraggly-bearded and gray, and with the weather-wise eyes of an old experienced seaman; Capt. Grant, the American,...and, so to speak, the engineer and scientist in the construction of models; and lastly, Tarleton, the Englishman and gentleman yachtsman who brought along his deep and narrow cutters) came to the pond. In those times there was something to look at indeed, and when the 'captains' brought out their newest creations, the three foot class, there was no end of excitement for the boys at the pond'" (H. Hess, ibid., pp. 3-4, quoting a letter written by Feininger to his son Lux dated 14 April 1943).
Vision einer Bark was painted in Berlin in 1935. He had been teaching at the Bauhaus in Dessau which then moved to Berlin before it was closed by the Nazis in 1993. Feininger stayed in Berlin until just before the outbreak of war when he left for America in 1937.
The present work centres around a ship viewed from afar, depicted almost floating on an endless, calm sea. The painting is filled with mysticism: the boat seems to divide in two of perhaps three ships moving in different directions. According to Hans Hess the years from 1933 to 1937, when Feininger lived in Berlin, marked a period when "he was preoccupied, as never before, with the 'object'. The object was becoming more independent...It was as if he held a toy in his hand - a sailing boat he had made himself- his eyes closed as he felt it." (ibid., p. 130). The atmosphere of tranquility embodied in Vision einer Bark, partly created by Feininger's use of a subtle palette of mainly green and yellow tones, can be aptly summed up in a phrase which Hess used to describe two other paintings of this period: "the whole picture is a dream with the magic of childhood" (ibid.).
To be included in the forthcoming Lyonel Feininger catalogue raisonné currently being prepared by Achim Moeller, New York.
We are extremely grateful to Achim Moeller for his assistance in compiling this catalogue entry.