(New York 1871–1956)
At the beach, 1911, dated Fri. 7. July 1911, coloured crayon, ink on paper (notepad), 14 x 21.8 cm, stamped Feininger Estate, framed

Provenance:
The Estate of the Artist
Marlborough Fine Art, London
Galerie Koch, Hannover – Acquired there in 2006 from the present owner
Private Collection, Germany

The works of Feininger which were created between 1907 and 1911 are captivating due to their otherness. In those years, Feininger broke away from his existence as a pure caricaturist and developed into a graphic painter. Figures determine the compositions of his works as before. Through his precise skills of observation he captures the movements and character of those represented, and colours his drawings in strong, bright tints. At the same time, he develops a love for nature, which he records in the “Nature Notes”, and is fascinated by the reflection of light on the water of the Baltic Sea.
After his first visit to Usedom in 1908, Lyonel Feininger thematised bathers at the beach. He is fascinated by curious bathing guests, comical beach scenes and the atmosphere of light at the beach, which he sketched in such drawings as this beach scene from July 1911. The beach landscape moreover appears to him as an appropriate subject by which to address intensively the new stimuli from Paris – amongst them the Cubistic works of Robert Delaunay – and to transfer them, with the help of numerous drawings, into a number of large-format paintings.

“Drawing is the soul of art”
Lyonel Feininger 1893

Provenance:
The Estate of the Artist
Marlborough Fine Art, London
Private Collection, Germany

The works of Feininger which were created between 1907 and 1911 are captivating due to their otherness. In those years, Feininger broke away from his existence as a pure caricaturist and developed into a graphic painter. Figures determine the compositions of his works as before. Through his precise skills of observation he captures the movements and character of those represented, and colours his drawings in strong, bright tints. At the same time, he develops a love for nature, which he records in the “Nature Notes”, and is fascinated by the reflection of light on the water of the Baltic Sea.
After his first visit to Usedom in 1908, Lyonel Feininger thematised bathers at the beach. He is fascinated by curious bathing guests, comical beach scenes and the atmosphere of light at the beach, which he sketched in such drawings as this beach scene from July 1911. The beach landscape moreover appears to him as an appropriate subject by which to address intensively the new stimuli from Paris – amongst them the Cubistic works of Robert Delaunay – and to transfer them, with the help of numerous drawings, into a number of large-format paintings.

“Drawing is the soul of art”
Lyonel Feininger 1893