NARRATOR:
This canvas by Lyonel Feininger depicts an alley in Weimar, Germany. He painted it around 1915, shortly after the outbreak of World War I, just as he was finding his mature style. In a letter of 1919, he wrote:
FEININGER [ACTOR]:
“The absolute straight right-angle form of all objects in the picture and the elimination of the natural perspective, as well as the unworldly color, are a direct consequence of my emotional state at the time because of the war. Street near the Palace is the first in a series of pictures with similar composition and form. The form speaks of escape into an ideal world of peace. This picture could almost be called happy since later pictures have even more expression of my melancholy.”
NARRATOR:
Born in New York City to German musicians, Feininger spent most of his early career in Germany and France, where in 1911 he encountered the art of Cubism. In this picture, he deconstructs buildings into an array of fragmented planes that shift like the facets of a shimmering jewel.
In 1919, Feininger joined the faculty of the Bauhaus in Germany, one of Europe’s most prestigious art schools. He exhibited widely in both Europe and the United States, joining the painters Kandinsky, Klee and Jawlensky in a group called “The Blue Four.” Declared a “degenerate” artist by the Nazis, Feininger returned to his native America in the late 1930s, where he was hailed as a hero of the modern movement.
Near the Palace
1914-1915
Lyonel Feininger (American, 1871-1956)
On View
Based on a drawing Feininger had made of a street in Weimar the previous fall, this picture was completed in the artist’s Berlin studio during the winter of 1914-1915. Though faceted, fragmentary shapes in the house fronts, steeple, and sky recall the formal experiments of Picasso and Braque during their Analytic Cubist phase, Feininger used these devices to new expressive ends, suggesting the feeling of isolation and alienation he experienced as an American living in Germany during the First World War. In a letter to one of the picture’s early owners, Dr. Erich Rosenhain, the painter would later explain, “The exceedingly straight right-angle form of all objects in the picture, the elimination of natural perspective, and the unearthly colors are a direct consequence of my emotional state at that time, a result of the war.”
Details
- Artist Name: Lyonel Feininger (American, 1871-1956)
- Title: Near the Palace
- Date: 1914-1915
- Medium: Oil on canvas
- Dimensions: 39-5/8 x 31-1/2 in. (100.6 x 80 cm)
- Credit Line: Norton Simon Art Foundation
- Accession Number: M.2000.1.1.P
- Copyright: © Lyonel Feininger / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn
Object Information
[Galerie Der Sturm, Berlin; sold 1917 to];
Sally Falk, Mannheim; sold 11 April 1918 to;
[Cassirer; sold 12 February 1919 to];
[Kestner Gesellschaft, Hannover];
Dr. Erich Rosenhain, Hannover; by 1919;
Dr. Gertrud Rosenhain, New York; probably until 1969;
[Eva Lee Gallery, Great Neck, New York; sold to];
[R. N. Ketterer, Campione d’Italia];
The Norton Simon Foundation (F.1969.16.1.P), sold 2000 to;
Norton Simon Art Foundation.
Sally Falk, Mannheim; sold 11 April 1918 to;
[Cassirer; sold 12 February 1919 to];
[Kestner Gesellschaft, Hannover];
Dr. Erich Rosenhain, Hannover; by 1919;
Dr. Gertrud Rosenhain, New York; probably until 1969;
[Eva Lee Gallery, Great Neck, New York; sold to];
[R. N. Ketterer, Campione d’Italia];
The Norton Simon Foundation (F.1969.16.1.P), sold 2000 to;
Norton Simon Art Foundation.
Lyonel Feininger
- Galerie Der Sturm, 1917-09 to
XXI. Sonderausstellung. Junge Berliner Kunst
- Hannover, Kestner Gesellschaft, 1918-12-18 to 1919-01-12
Masterpieces of Five Centuries, Forty-Eight Paintings and Sculptures from the Norton Simon Foundation and the Norton Simon, Inc. Museum
- Houston, Museum of Fine Arts, 1972-10-04 to 1973-11-04
Seascape/Cityscape: The Art of Lyonel Feininger
- Norton Simon Museum, 1993-07-15 to 1994-01-09
The Blue Four and Their Contemporaries
- Norton Simon Museum, 1991-06-20 to 1992-05-24
My Four Kings: Galka Scheyer and the Blue Four
- Norton Simon Museum, 2002-12-13 to 2003-04-14
- Lyonel Feininger, p. 5
- Westheim, Paul, Das Kunstblatt, 1918, p. 245
- Einstein, Carl, Die Kunst des 20. Jahrhunderts, 1926, p. 390
- Ketterer, Roman Norbert, Moderne Kunst VI, 1969, no. 15 p. 30
- Goldstein, Nathan, Design and Composition, 1989, fig. 6.3 p. 127
- Masterpieces from the Norton Simon Museum, 1989, p. 188
- Stiftung und Sammlung Sally Falk, 1994, no. 86 p. 118
- Hess, Hans, Lyonel Feininger, 1994, no. 150 p. 261
- Barnett, Vivian Endicott, The Blue Four Collection at the Norton Simon Museum, 2002, no. 008 pp. 32-34
- Campbell, Sara, Collector Without Walls: Norton Simon and His Hunt for the Best, 2010, cat. 644 p. 322
Additional Artwork by Artist
Image reproduction permission may be granted for scholarly or arts related commercial use. All image requests, regardless of their intended purpose, should be submitted via the reproduction request form.
Images may be protected by copyright and other intellectual property rights. Additional permission may be required.
Approved requests for the reproduction of an image will receive a contract detailing all fees and conditions of use of the image. Upon receipt of both the signed contract and full payment, the Office of Rights and Reproductions will provide the image. A complimentary copy of the published material must be provided to the Norton Simon Museum.