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The Church of Heiligenhafen hovers between abstraction and representation. The composition is divided in two: the upper half shows the church, and the lower its reflection in a body of light blue water. At the top center is the profile of the church, with a small tower on the left and a larger and taller vertical projection on the right. It is colored a brownish-red and is surrounded by smaller, dark brown buildings. Almost at the center of the composition is a small slit through which a ray of light shines. The sky is rosy orange and yellow over green underpainting. The shapes are roughly geometric and angular, and the arrangement emphasizes the horizontality of the format.
Heiligenhafen is a fishing village in northernmost Germany on the Baltic Sea. Beginning in 1924, Feininger spent his summers nearby in Deep and was inspired by the region’s simple old buildings, vistas of the sea, and northern light. These he distilled into serene and lyrical images that reveal his debt to Cubism and yearning for an emotional response to nature. Because his family stayed behind each summer, he wrote effusive letters to his wife describing his insights. “I don’t paint a picture for the purpose of creating an aesthetic achievement, and I never think of pictures in the traditional sense. From deep within me arises an almost painful urge for realization of inner experiences, an overwhelming longing, an unearthly nostalgia overcomes me at times to bring them to light out of a long lost past.” [2]
On the reverse of the painting is written an alternate title: Kirche am Wasser, or Church on the Water, a literal description of what is depicted. The painting is signed and dated 1922, close to the time that Feininger composed fugues for the organ. With its mirror image in the foreground, The Church of Heiligenhafen suggests a point and counterpoint not unlike a musical composition. [3]
Notes:
[1] Feininger to Alfred Vance Churchill, March 13, 1913, Archives of American Art, quoted in Barbara Haskell, et al, Lyonel Feininger: At the Edge of the World (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press in association with the Whitney Museum of American Art, 2011), 48.
[2] Feininger to Julia Feininger, August 2, 1927, quoted in June L. Ness, ed., Lyonel Feininger (New York: Frederick A. Praeger, 1974), 61.
[3] Charles C. Eldredge, Barbara Babcock Millhouse, and Robert G. Workman, American Originals: Selections from Reynolda House, Museum of American Art (New York: Abbeville Press, 1990), 100.
ProvenanceMax Wurzburger, Berlin [1]
To 1966
Charles H. Babcock, Sr. (1899-1967), Winston-Salem, NC. [2]
From 1966
Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Winston-Salem, NC, given by Charles H. Babcock, Sr. on February 11, 1966. [3]
Notes:
[1] Joan Durana Provenance Research, c. 1983, object file.
[2] Deed of Gift, object file.
[3] See note 2.
Exhibition History1990-1992
American Originals, Selections from Reynolda House Museum of American Art
The American Federation of Arts
Center for the Fine Arts, Miami FL (9/22/1990-11/18/1990)
Palm Springs Desert Museum, Palm Springs CA (12/16/1990-2/10/1991)
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York NY (3/6/1991-5/11/1991)
Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, Memphis TN (6/2/1991-7/28/1991)
Amon Carter Museum of Western Art, Fort Worth TX (8/17/1991-10/20/1991)
Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago IL (11/17/1991-1/12/1992)
The Gilcrease Museum, Tulsa, OK (3/1/1992-4/26/1992)
2008-2009
Feininger Retrospective in Japan
Yokosuka Museum of Art (8/2/2008 - 10/5/2008)
Aichi Prefectural Museum of Art (10/17/2008 - 12/23/2008)
The Miyagi Museum (1/10/2009 - 3/1/2009)
2023
Black Mountain College: Seedbed of American Art
Reynolda House Museum of American Art (3/10/2023-6/25/2023)
Published ReferencesHaskell, Barbara. Lyonel Feininger: At the Edge of the World catalogue (New York: Whitney Museum of American Art, 2011): 100.
Lyonel Feininger Retrospective in Japan catalogue. (Tokyo: The Tokyo Shimbun, 2008): 110.
Millhouse, Barbara B. and Robert Workman. American Originals New York: Abbeville Press Publishers, 1990: 106-7.
Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Reynolda: Her Muses, Her Stories , with contributions by Martha R. Severens and David Park Curry (Winston-Salem, N.C.: Reynolda House Museum of American Art affiliated with Wake Forest University, 2017). pg. 102, 103
DepartmentAmerican Art
Church of Heiligenhafen
Artist
Lyonel Feininger
(1871 - 1956)
Date1922
Mediumoil on canvas
DimensionsFrame: 17 x 24 5/8 in. (43.2 x 62.5 cm)
Canvas: 15 5/8 x 23 1/4 in. (39.7 x 59.1 cm)
SignedFeininger 1922
Credit LineGift of Charles H. Babcock, Sr.
Copyright© 2021 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn
Object number1966.2.12
DescriptionDuring 1911–1912, several artists moved swiftly and simultaneously toward complete abstraction: the Dutchman Piet Mondrian, the Russian Wassily Kandinsky, the Spaniard Pablo Picasso, and the American Arthur Dove. While each developed his own distinctive style, other artists resisted abstraction, and continued to paint in a quasi-representational mode, as was the case with the American-German artist Lyonel Feininger. He fell under the spell of Cubism after he encountered it in Paris in 1911, saying he “saw the light.” [1] About the same time he probably met Kandinsky—they were both exhibiting with Der Blaue Reiter—and read his seminal On the Spiritual in Art, 1912, which made analogies between abstract art and music. Kandinsky’s theory would have resonated with Feininger, a one-time child prodigy with the violin. The Church of Heiligenhafen hovers between abstraction and representation. The composition is divided in two: the upper half shows the church, and the lower its reflection in a body of light blue water. At the top center is the profile of the church, with a small tower on the left and a larger and taller vertical projection on the right. It is colored a brownish-red and is surrounded by smaller, dark brown buildings. Almost at the center of the composition is a small slit through which a ray of light shines. The sky is rosy orange and yellow over green underpainting. The shapes are roughly geometric and angular, and the arrangement emphasizes the horizontality of the format.
Heiligenhafen is a fishing village in northernmost Germany on the Baltic Sea. Beginning in 1924, Feininger spent his summers nearby in Deep and was inspired by the region’s simple old buildings, vistas of the sea, and northern light. These he distilled into serene and lyrical images that reveal his debt to Cubism and yearning for an emotional response to nature. Because his family stayed behind each summer, he wrote effusive letters to his wife describing his insights. “I don’t paint a picture for the purpose of creating an aesthetic achievement, and I never think of pictures in the traditional sense. From deep within me arises an almost painful urge for realization of inner experiences, an overwhelming longing, an unearthly nostalgia overcomes me at times to bring them to light out of a long lost past.” [2]
On the reverse of the painting is written an alternate title: Kirche am Wasser, or Church on the Water, a literal description of what is depicted. The painting is signed and dated 1922, close to the time that Feininger composed fugues for the organ. With its mirror image in the foreground, The Church of Heiligenhafen suggests a point and counterpoint not unlike a musical composition. [3]
Notes:
[1] Feininger to Alfred Vance Churchill, March 13, 1913, Archives of American Art, quoted in Barbara Haskell, et al, Lyonel Feininger: At the Edge of the World (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press in association with the Whitney Museum of American Art, 2011), 48.
[2] Feininger to Julia Feininger, August 2, 1927, quoted in June L. Ness, ed., Lyonel Feininger (New York: Frederick A. Praeger, 1974), 61.
[3] Charles C. Eldredge, Barbara Babcock Millhouse, and Robert G. Workman, American Originals: Selections from Reynolda House, Museum of American Art (New York: Abbeville Press, 1990), 100.
ProvenanceMax Wurzburger, Berlin [1]
To 1966
Charles H. Babcock, Sr. (1899-1967), Winston-Salem, NC. [2]
From 1966
Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Winston-Salem, NC, given by Charles H. Babcock, Sr. on February 11, 1966. [3]
Notes:
[1] Joan Durana Provenance Research, c. 1983, object file.
[2] Deed of Gift, object file.
[3] See note 2.
Exhibition History1990-1992
American Originals, Selections from Reynolda House Museum of American Art
The American Federation of Arts
Center for the Fine Arts, Miami FL (9/22/1990-11/18/1990)
Palm Springs Desert Museum, Palm Springs CA (12/16/1990-2/10/1991)
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York NY (3/6/1991-5/11/1991)
Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, Memphis TN (6/2/1991-7/28/1991)
Amon Carter Museum of Western Art, Fort Worth TX (8/17/1991-10/20/1991)
Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago IL (11/17/1991-1/12/1992)
The Gilcrease Museum, Tulsa, OK (3/1/1992-4/26/1992)
2008-2009
Feininger Retrospective in Japan
Yokosuka Museum of Art (8/2/2008 - 10/5/2008)
Aichi Prefectural Museum of Art (10/17/2008 - 12/23/2008)
The Miyagi Museum (1/10/2009 - 3/1/2009)
2023
Black Mountain College: Seedbed of American Art
Reynolda House Museum of American Art (3/10/2023-6/25/2023)
Published ReferencesHaskell, Barbara. Lyonel Feininger: At the Edge of the World catalogue (New York: Whitney Museum of American Art, 2011): 100.
Lyonel Feininger Retrospective in Japan catalogue. (Tokyo: The Tokyo Shimbun, 2008): 110.
Millhouse, Barbara B. and Robert Workman. American Originals New York: Abbeville Press Publishers, 1990: 106-7.
Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Reynolda: Her Muses, Her Stories , with contributions by Martha R. Severens and David Park Curry (Winston-Salem, N.C.: Reynolda House Museum of American Art affiliated with Wake Forest University, 2017). pg. 102, 103
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