Museum Folkwang Collection Online
Gelmeroda IX
  • Lyonel Feininger

  • Gelmeroda IX, 1926

  • Gelmeroda IX
  • Oil on canvas
  • 100 x 80 cm
  • Acquired in 1951 with the support of the Folkwang-Museumsverein and Burkhardt & Co.
  • Inv. G 223
  • © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2024
  • CommentaryThrough meeting Julia Berg, the woman who would later become his wife, and who was at the time an art student at the Großherzoglichen Kunstgewerbeschule Weimar, Lyonel Feininger got to know the Thuringian basin. Thereafter, Weimar and its surrounding villages served the artist, already successful as a caricaturist, for many years as an important source of motifs. In the spring of 1906, Lyonel Feininger drew the late-Romantic village church in Gelmeroda, only a few kilometers from Weimar.
    In countless drawings, caricatures, woodcuttings and in 13 paintings – one of which is the work in Essen – over the course of 30 years, Feininger revisited this unconventional motif artistically. Those who know the village will be surprised by the cathedral-like superelevation and extent of dematerialization of its architecture which Feininger achieved in these paintings through surfaces, seemingly transparent and illuminated from the interior, in various tones and colors.
    The painting’s structure is taken from real architecture. However, the layering and grading of the color forms, seemingly cut from glass, promote a transfiguration of the church building into a heavenly manifestation of light and crystal.
  • Provenancespätestens 1932–1951: Sammlung Ida Bienert (1870–1965), Dresden/München | seit 1951: Museum Folkwang, Essen

    Provenienz unbelastet

    Die Untersuchung erfolgte im Rahmen des vom Deutschen Zentrum Kulturgutverluste geförderten Projekts zur Bestandsprüfung (01.10.2019–30.09.2020).
  • Obj_Id: 3,281
  • Obj_Internet_S: ja
  • Obj_Ownership_S (Verantw):Painting, Sculpture, Media Art
  • Obj_SpareNField01_N (Verantw):
  • Obj_Creditline_S: Museum Folkwang, Essen, Gemäldesammlung
  • Obj_Title1_S: Gelmeroda IX
  • Obj_Title2_S: Gelmeroda IX
  • Obj_PartDescription_S (Titelerg):
  • Obj_SpareMField01_M (Alle Titel): Gelmeroda IX Gelmeroda IX
  • Obj_Dating_S: 1926
  • Jahr von: 1,926
  • Jahr bis: 1,926
  • Obj_IdentNr_S: G 223
  • Obj_IdentNrSort_S: G 0223
  • Obj_Classification_S (Objtyp): Painting
  • Obj_Crate_S: 100 x 80 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 Folkwang-Museumsverein and Burkhardt & Co.
  • Obj_PermanentLocation_S (Standort):
  • Obj_Condition1_S (Druckerei):
  • Obj_Condition2_S (Auflage):
  • Obj_Subtype_S (Genre):
  • Obj_Rights_S: © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2024
Commentary
Artists
Provenance

Through meeting Julia Berg, the woman who would later become his wife, and who was at the time an art student at the Großherzoglichen Kunstgewerbeschule Weimar, Lyonel Feininger got to know the Thuringian basin. Thereafter, Weimar and its surrounding villages served the artist, already successful as a caricaturist, for many years as an important source of motifs. In the spring of 1906, Lyonel Feininger drew the late-Romantic village church in Gelmeroda, only a few kilometers from Weimar.
In countless drawings, caricatures, woodcuttings and in 13 paintings – one of which is the work in Essen – over the course of 30 years, Feininger revisited this unconventional motif artistically. Those who know the village will be surprised by the cathedral-like superelevation and extent of dematerialization of its architecture which Feininger achieved in these paintings through surfaces, seemingly transparent and illuminated from the interior, in various tones and colors.
The painting’s structure is taken from real architecture. However, the layering and grading of the color forms, seemingly cut from glass, promote a transfiguration of the church building into a heavenly manifestation of light and crystal.