Lot Essay
In September 1917, Herwarth Walden opened the first ever comprehensive exhibition of Feininger's work at his celebrated Galerie Der Sturm in Berlin. This pivotal show included Schlossgasse, which Feininger chose to exhibit in public for the first time since he had completed it two years earlier in Weimar.
"Ever since Walden had become aware of Feininger at the 1913 Herbstsalon (see catalogue entry for lot 201), he had been firmly convinced by his work...In 1917 Walden arranged at the Sturm the first comprehensive exibition of Feininger's work. Feininger described in a letter exactly how his pictures were hung and how Walden became more and more excited in the process of hanging them. With great skill and understanding he arranged one wall after the other, and Feininger observed how the rhythms and sonorities of his pictures began to live together. The exhbition became alive and exciting...Feininger did not go to the opening, but he was delighted to hear of the big crowds that attended and of the impact that the pictures made...With that exhibition Feininger's name was established" (H. Hess, op. cit., pp. 83-84).
A highly finished charcoal preparatory study for Schlossgasse is extant which demonstrates the concentration with which Feininger developed the impression of volume through the overlapping of sensitively shaded planes achieved in the painting (see illustration). The figures visible in both works provide an emphatic sense of scale combined with a searing perspective down the blind alley. "The vibration that the firm geometrical forms set up in their interplay creates a static harmony that in all stability has the semblance of movement" (H. Hess, ibid., p. 62).
Feininger's intense efforts of 1912, as explained in a letter of the following year, can be seen to have come to fruition in Schlossgasse: "[In] 1912 I worked entirely independently, striving to wrest the secrets of atmospheric perspective and light and shade gradation, likewise rhythm and balance between various objects, from Nature. My 'Cubism' ... is based upon the principle of monumentality, concentration to the absolutest extreme possible, of my visions...My pictures are ever nearing closer the Synthesis of the fugue...My 'Cubism', call it rather, if it must have a name, 'prism-ism'" (in a letter to Alfred Vance Churchill dated 13 March 1913, see H. Hess, ibid., p. 56).
The present work previously belonged to Ludwig Fischer (1860-1922), the Frankfurt art dealer who was amongst the first champions of Expressionist Art. Together with his wife Rosy Haas, Fischer assembled one of the finest collections of works by the most significant artists of the generation such as Kirchner, Macke, Klee, Kandinksy, Felixmüller and Nolde, many of which are now housed in the Staatliche Galerie Moritzburg in Halle. Schlossgasse then passed to Ludwig and Rosy's eldest son, Max.
Following its appearance at the Der Sturm exhibition in 1917, Schlossgasse was chosen for several other important early exhibitions, including a further one-man exhibition held at the Galerie Neue Kunst Hans Golz, Munich in 1918 and in an exhibition paralleling the work of Feininger and Paul Klee held the Kestner-Gesellschaft, Hannover in 1919. More recently, the painting has been widely exhibited, largely due to the auspices of the William H. Lane Foundation who acquired the painting in 1953 and permitted it to be on public view for most of the 1950s.
To be included in the forthcoming Lyonel Feiniger catalogue raisonné currently being prepared by Achim Moeller, New York.
We are extremely grateful to Achim Moeller for his assistance in preparing this catalogue entry.
"Ever since Walden had become aware of Feininger at the 1913 Herbstsalon (see catalogue entry for lot 201), he had been firmly convinced by his work...In 1917 Walden arranged at the Sturm the first comprehensive exibition of Feininger's work. Feininger described in a letter exactly how his pictures were hung and how Walden became more and more excited in the process of hanging them. With great skill and understanding he arranged one wall after the other, and Feininger observed how the rhythms and sonorities of his pictures began to live together. The exhbition became alive and exciting...Feininger did not go to the opening, but he was delighted to hear of the big crowds that attended and of the impact that the pictures made...With that exhibition Feininger's name was established" (H. Hess, op. cit., pp. 83-84).
A highly finished charcoal preparatory study for Schlossgasse is extant which demonstrates the concentration with which Feininger developed the impression of volume through the overlapping of sensitively shaded planes achieved in the painting (see illustration). The figures visible in both works provide an emphatic sense of scale combined with a searing perspective down the blind alley. "The vibration that the firm geometrical forms set up in their interplay creates a static harmony that in all stability has the semblance of movement" (H. Hess, ibid., p. 62).
Feininger's intense efforts of 1912, as explained in a letter of the following year, can be seen to have come to fruition in Schlossgasse: "[In] 1912 I worked entirely independently, striving to wrest the secrets of atmospheric perspective and light and shade gradation, likewise rhythm and balance between various objects, from Nature. My 'Cubism' ... is based upon the principle of monumentality, concentration to the absolutest extreme possible, of my visions...My pictures are ever nearing closer the Synthesis of the fugue...My 'Cubism', call it rather, if it must have a name, 'prism-ism'" (in a letter to Alfred Vance Churchill dated 13 March 1913, see H. Hess, ibid., p. 56).
The present work previously belonged to Ludwig Fischer (1860-1922), the Frankfurt art dealer who was amongst the first champions of Expressionist Art. Together with his wife Rosy Haas, Fischer assembled one of the finest collections of works by the most significant artists of the generation such as Kirchner, Macke, Klee, Kandinksy, Felixmüller and Nolde, many of which are now housed in the Staatliche Galerie Moritzburg in Halle. Schlossgasse then passed to Ludwig and Rosy's eldest son, Max.
Following its appearance at the Der Sturm exhibition in 1917, Schlossgasse was chosen for several other important early exhibitions, including a further one-man exhibition held at the Galerie Neue Kunst Hans Golz, Munich in 1918 and in an exhibition paralleling the work of Feininger and Paul Klee held the Kestner-Gesellschaft, Hannover in 1919. More recently, the painting has been widely exhibited, largely due to the auspices of the William H. Lane Foundation who acquired the painting in 1953 and permitted it to be on public view for most of the 1950s.
To be included in the forthcoming Lyonel Feiniger catalogue raisonné currently being prepared by Achim Moeller, New York.
We are extremely grateful to Achim Moeller for his assistance in preparing this catalogue entry.