We are delighted to share with you a very special series of sunset drawings that Lyonel Feininger (1871–1956) made during his summer sojourns in the fishing village of Deep (now Mrzeżyno) at the mouth of the Rega river on the Baltic Sea.
Feininger visited Deep for the first time in 1924, and was immediately captivated. He would return every year until 1935. As he wrote to his wife, Julia, upon first arriving in Deep: “The sea is so beautiful and so quiet as I have never seen it before—no traffic in sight, not even rowing or fishing boats.”
Feininger became particularly enchanted with the sunsets over the sea. He went to the beach to watch them every day, noting how no two were alike. He described them in enthusiastic letters to Julia—writing of a silver-toned sunset with the “sky full of soft fog clouds” and of “marvelous clouds…concentrated, moving, swept by the storm over the inland; behind those radial ascending cirrus [clouds] with outrageously delicate hues, pink on apple and plum-blue sky background”—and captured them in drawings in crayon and pencil on paper.
Lyonel Feininger (1871–1956)
(Sunset on the Sea), 1934
Crayon on paper
5 9/16 x 8 3/4 in. (14.1 x 22.2 cm)
Dated upper left: 10 9 34
Lyonel Feininger (1871–1956)
(Two Boats on the Sea at Sundown), 1934
Crayon and pencil on paper
5 9/16 x 8 3/4 in. (14.1 x 22.2 cm)
Dated upper right: 10 9 34
Lyonel Feininger (1871–1956)
(Sunset at Sea), 1934
Crayon on paper
5 3/4 x 9 in. (14.6 x 22.9 cm)
Dated lower left: Sont d 26 8 34
Lyonel Feininger (1871–1956)
(On the Shore), 1935
Crayon on paper
5 7/8 x 8 5/16 in. (14.9 x 21.1 cm)
Signed lower right: Feininger
Dated upper left: Sonnab. 14 9 35
Lyonel Feininger (1871–1956)
(Sundown on the Shore), 1934
Crayon on paper
5 3/4 x 8 3/4 in. (14.6 x 22.2 cm)
Dated upper right: 28 9 34
Lyonel Feininger (1871–1956)
(Evening on the Shore), 1934
Crayon on paper
5 9/16 x 8 3/4 in. (14.1 x 22.2 cm)
Dated lower left: 4 10 34
Lyonel Feininger (1871–1956)
(Cloud Formation), 1934
Crayon on paper
5 9/16 x 8 3/4 in. (14.1 x 22.2 cm)
Signed lower right: Feininger
Dated upper left: 18 8 34
Inscribed upper right: 34
Lyonel Feininger (1871–1956)
(Curved Shoreline), 1934
Crayon on paper
7 x 10 in. (17.8 x 25.4 cm)
Dated lower right: 23 9 34
Lyonel Feininger (1871–1956)
(On the Shore), 1935
Crayon on paper
5 1/2 x 8 3/4 in. (14 x 22.2 cm)
Signed lower left: Feininger
Dated upper right: 13 6 35
Lyonel Feininger (1871-1956)
(Four-Masted Sailing Ship), 1935
Crayon on paper
5 9/16 x 8 5/8 in. (14.1 x 21.9 cm)
Dated lower center: 1 6 35
Lyonel Feininger at the Seaside in Deep, 1932
Photo: T. Lux Feininger
1871
Lyonel Feininger is born on July 17 in New York to Karl and Elizabeth Feininger; he is the first of three children.
1887
Leaves for Germany and starts studying at the General Vocational and Crafts School in Hamburg.
1888
Moves to Berlin and begins studying at the Royal Academy of Arts.
1892
Leaves the Academy and moves to Paris.
1893
Moves back to Berlin and starts working as a freelance cartoonist and illustrator.
1901
Marries Clara Fürst, birth of daughter Eleonora.
1902
Birth of daughter Marianne.
1905
Meets Julia Berg (née Lilienfeld) and separates from his wife.
1906
Moves with Julia to Paris and their son Andreas is born. Works on two comic strips for The Chicago Sunday Tribune.
1907
Executes his first oil painting.
1908
Marries Julia in London, returns to Berlin.
1909
Birth of son Laurence.
1910
Birth of son Theodore Lux (T. Lux).
1911
Six paintings are shown at the Salon des Indépendants in Paris.
1913
Five paintings are shown at the Erster Deutscher Herbstsalon, organized by the Galerie Der Sturm in Berlin.
1917
First solo exhibition at the Galerie Der Sturm.
1919
Is appointed the first master of the Staatliches Bauhaus in Weimar.
1921
Composes his first fugue.
1926
Moves with the Bauhaus to Dessau as master without teaching duties.
1929
Works on a series of paintings for the City of Halle (Saale).
1931
Completes his Halle series. Retrospectives in Dresden, Essen, and at the Nationalgalerie in Berlin.
1934
Moves to Berlin-Siemensstadt.
1935
The National Socialists declare his art “degenerate.”
1936
Teaches a summer course at Mills College in Oakland, California.
1937
Leaves Germany, teaches another summer course at Mills College and then settles in New York City.
1939
Works on murals for the 1939/1940 New York World’s Fair.
1942
One of his paintings is awarded a purchase prize by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
1944
Retrospective with Marsden Hartley at The Museum of Modern Art in New York.
1945
Teaches a summer course at Black Mountain College in Asheville, North Carolina.
1956
Dies on January 13 in his New York apartment.