Museum Folkwang
Leuchtbake I
  • Lyonel Feininger

  • Leuchtbake I, around 1913

  • Light Beacon I
  • Oil on canvas
  • 105 x 81 cm
  • Acquired in 1951 with the support of the City of Essen
  • Inv. G 222
  • © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2017
  • CommentaryFeininger applied the fragmentation of colors and forms even
    more consistently in his painting ›Leuchtbake I‹ (Light Beacon I).
    The light beacon construct, a navigational aid used to mark fairways in seafaring contexts, frequently displays a distinctive, pyramidal form with top markings at the peak, the actual beacon. In his painting, Feininger hardly differentiates between the elements, with the green-blue sea looming in the same shapes as the gray sky, which seems to be brightened by a distant light. The beacon itself penetrates the Cubist pattern with its unique, coherent form, while seemingly acting as the model for the faceted formal language. As Feininger observed in 1913: »My Cubism … is quite the opposite of the objectives pursued by the French Cubists; it is founded on the principle of monumentality and concentration taken to the absolute extreme of my perception
    … my pictures come ever closer to the synthesis of the fugue.«
  • Provenance1930, Ferdinand Möller, Berlin
    1951, Dr. Hans Helmut Klihm, München
    1951, Kauf bei Klihm, Museum Folkwang, Essen
  • Obj_Id: 3,278
  • Obj_Internet_S: ja
  • Obj_Ownership_S (Verantw):Painting, Sculpture, Media Art
  • Obj_SpareNField01_N (Verantw): 187
  • Obj_Creditline_S: Gemäldesammlung
  • Obj_Title1_S: Leuchtbake I
  • Obj_Title2_S: Light Beacon I
  • Obj_PartDescription_S (Titelerg):
  • Obj_SpareMField01_M (Alle Titel): Leuchtbake I Light Beacon I Leuchtbake I
  • Obj_Dating_S: around 1913
  • Jahr von: 1,903
  • Jahr bis: 1,923
  • Obj_IdentNr_S: G 222
  • Obj_IdentNrSort_S: G 0222
  • Obj_Classification_S (Objtyp): Painting
  • Obj_Crate_S: 105 x 81 cm
  • Obj_Material_S: Oil on canvas
  • Obj_Technique_S:
  • Obj_SpareSField01_S (Mat./Tech.): Oil on canvas
  • Obj_AccNote_S (Erwerb): Acquired in 1951 with the support of the City of Essen
  • Obj_PermanentLocation_S (Standort):
  • Obj_Condition1_S (Druckerei):
  • Obj_Condition2_S (Auflage):
  • Obj_Subtype_S (Genre):
  • Obj_Rights_S: © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2017
Commentary
Artists
Provenance

1930, Ferdinand Möller, Berlin
1951, Dr. Hans Helmut Klihm, München
1951, Kauf bei Klihm, Museum Folkwang, Essen