Baltic, A Recollection

Artist Lyonel Feininger (American, 1871 - 1956)

Date1947

DimensionsPainting: 20 × 34 7/8 in. (50.8 × 88.6 cm)
Frame: 21 1/2 × 36 1/2 × 1 3/4 in. (54.6 × 92.7 × 4.4 cm)

MediumOil on canvas

ClassificationPaintings

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number

1948.69

Not on View

Label TextLyonel Feininger spent the first 16 years of his life in New York before moving to Germany, where he ultimately became one of the leading practitioners of German Expressionism and the avant-garde style promoted by the Bauhaus design school. With the rise of Nazism, Feineiger was forced to flee Germany in 1936, eventually settling in New York. Well known for his dreamlike seascapes, of which Baltic: A Recollection is a prime example, Feininger once commented, "the mystical quality in the object has always kept me spellbound." Having been exposed to Cubist art during its height in Paris, Feininger's work bore the mark of that movement, notably in his organization of space by planes. But his work was also frequently infused with an air of mystery and wonder that was all his own. He remarked, "That which is seen has to go through a process of transformation and crystallization to become a picture.”Published ReferencesHess, H., Lyonel Feininger, New York, 1961, no. 477, repr.

Toledo Museum of Art, The Toledo Museum of Art, American Paintings, Toledo, 1979, pp. 47-48, pl. 190.

Young, Mahonri Sharp, "From Howling Wilderness to Queensborough Bridge," Apollo, vol. 86, no. 70, Dec. 1967, p. 504, repr. fig. 18, p. 505.

Lee, Katharine C., "Modern Art," The Toledo Museum of Art Museum News, vol. 11, no. 4, 1968, p. 83, repr.

A Guide to the Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, 1966, repr.

Buche, Wolfgang, Lyonel Feininger: Zuruck in Amerika 1937-1956, Munchen, Hirmer, 2009, p. 77, repr. (col.).

Exhibition HistoryNew York, Buchholz Gallery, Feininger, Recent Work 1945-1947, 1948, no. 9.

Toledo Museum of Art, 35th Annual, 1948, no. 19.

Cleveland Museum of Art, Work of Lyonel Feininger, 1951, no. 41, pl. XI.

Toledo Museum of Art, Fiftieth Anniversary Exhibition of Contemporary American Oil Paintings Acquired by the Toledo Museum 1901-1951, 1951.

Halle, Germany, Stiftung Moritzburg Kunstmuseum des Landes Achsen-Anhalt, Lyonel Feininger: Zurück in Amerika, 1937-1956, 2009, no. 22, pp. 74, 76, repr. p. 77 (col.).