Sale: 428 / Modern Art, Dec. 03./05. 2015 in Munich Lot 255

 

255
Lyonel Feininger
The Baltic (V-Cloud), 1946/47.
Oil on canvas
Estimate:
€ 250,000 / $ 270,000
Sold:
€ 475,000 / $ 513,000

(incl. surcharge)
The Baltic (V-Cloud). 1946/47.
Oil on canvas.
Hess 472 (with black and white illu. 60 on p. 232). Signed upper right. Titled in India ink "The Baltic" on stretcher, as well as once more signed and dated "1946-47" in pencil. 43.2 x 73.5 cm (17 x 28.9 in).

One of Feininger's famous magic Baltic landscapes.

PROVENANCE: From artist's estate.
Private collection.
Galerie Gunzenhauser, Munich.
Private collection North Rhine-Westphalia.

EXHIBITION: Feininger: Recent Work 1945-1947. Buchholz Gallery Curt Valentin, New York, 2 - 20 March, 1948, no. 11
New Paintings by Lyonel Feininger, Bozeman State College, 1949, San Francisco Museum of Art, 5 April - 2 May, 1949/ Portland Art Museum 14 June, 1949
Jaques Villon, Lyonel Feininger. The Institute of Contemporary Art Boston, 7 October - 20 November, 1949, no. 60 (p.46)/ The Phillips Gallery Washington 11 December, 1949 - 10 January 1950/ et al
Lyonel Feininger. Exhibition on occasion of the artist's 80th birthday, Curt Valentin Gallery, New York, 18 March - 12 April, 1952, cat. no. 18, no illu. (with exhibition label on stretcher).
Lyonel Feininger. Bayerische Akademie der Schönen Künste, 3 September - 10 October, 1954/ Kestner-Gesellschaft Hanover, 17 October - 21 November, 1954, cat. no. 28 (with exhibition label on stretcher).
Lyonel Feininger. Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, 10 December, 1954 - 17 January, 1955, no. 28
Sixth Annual Exhibition, Museum of Art of Ogunquit, Maine, 28 June - 8 September, 1958 (with exhibition label on stretcher).
Lyonel Feininger: Paintings of Harbors, ships and the Sea. Busch-Reisinger Museum of Art, Harvard University, Cambridge/Mass., 6 October - 8 November, 1958, p. 6 (with exhibition label on stretcher).
Lyonel Feininger. The Willard Gallery, New York 4 November - 6 December, 1958, no. 10 (with label on stretcher).
Lyonel Feininger 1871-1956, Haus der Kunst, Munich, 24 March - 13 May, 1973/Kunsthalle Zurich, 25 May - 22 July, 1973, cat. no. 157, no illu. (with exhibition label on stretcher).
Lyonel Feininger, Galerie Orangerie, Cologne 1980, no p., with color illu.
Lyonel Feininger. Gemälde, Aquarelle und Zeichnungen, Graphik, Kunsthalle Kiel, 19 June - 29 August, 1982, cat. no. 25 (with illu.).

LITERATURE: Alfred Fischer, Lyonel Feininger in Amerika 1937-1956, in Lyonel Feininger. Natur-Notizen: Skizzen und Zeichnungen aus dem Busch-Reisinger Museum, Harvard University, cat. Kunsthalle Emden, Andrea Firmenich and Ulrich Luckhardt, Cologne 1993, black and white illu. no. 6.
Galerie Gunzenhauser (editor), Aus den Beständen der Galerie: Catalog 5, Munich 1982
Ulrich Luckhardt. Lyonel Feininger. Munich 1989, p. 158, plate 55 (with color illu.)
Hilke Lind, Lyonel Feininger in Pommern 1891-1935, in Brücke-Almanach 1998: Lyonel Feininger, Karl Schmidt-Rottluff, Erich Heckel: Künstlerfreundschaften, cat., Schleswig Holsteinisches Landesmuseum, Schloss Gottdorf, Hermann Gerlinger and Heinz Spielmann, Schleswig 1998, black and white illu. no. 27.
Ulrich Luckhardt, Lyonel Feininger, München 1998, color illu. no. 55.
Hans Schulz-Vanselow. Lyonel Feininger und Pommern, Kiel 1999, color illu. no. 160.

"Clear forms, which carry the space element andthe subject in all simplicity and directness-that in a new way, is what it makes Turner's art so great andlasting" wrote Lyonel Feininger to his son Lux in a letter from2 July,1946 (quote after: Ulrich Luckhardt, Lyonel Feininger, Munich 1989, p. 158).
In reminiscence of happy days Lyonel Feininger spent with his wife Julia at the Baltic Sea, the much-depicted theme is celebrated from memory in this work. The land-locked Baltic Sea differs from the open oceans through the variety of her shores and the pure beauty of her coasts. Lyonel Feininger discovered the sea's reserved charm at an early point, its illustration has led to some of his most mature works. Influenced by German Romanticism, to which the American of German origin felt very close, paintings with this subject break any visual boundary. Sky and sea form a unity and strive to be perceived in their painterly interpretation. The sea's mystic vastness under a high sky had alreday been used by Caspar David Friedrich for his famous painting "Der Monch am Meer" (The Monk by the Sea ). Feininger both expands and delimitates the theme through the magic of a silence that can be felt in the solitude at the Baltic Sea. But in Feininger's work it no longer is the solitary man on the beach and his quest for the meaning of life. A lonely sail that breaks the silence of loneliness without any visual presence serves as a subtle signal of civilization. Its optical answer resonances in the vastness. Feininger's talent in capturing the space's mythical character and to let it dissolve into infinity emphasizes the magical value of his works even more.



255
Lyonel Feininger
The Baltic (V-Cloud), 1946/47.
Oil on canvas
Estimate:
€ 250,000 / $ 270,000
Sold:
€ 475,000 / $ 513,000

(incl. surcharge)