Old Gables VI

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Artist/Maker Lyonel Feininger (American, 1871-1956)

Date1944

MediumOil on canvas

DimensionsOverall: 16 3/4 × 27 3/4 in. (42.5 × 70.5 cm) Frame: 18 1/2 × 29 5/8 × 1 3/4 in. (47 × 75.2 × 4.4 cm)

Credit LineGift of James Taylor Dunn, Class of 1936, and Marie C. Bach Dunn

Object number2001.9

Not on view

DescriptionBorn in New York to German immigrant parents, Lyonel Feininger moved to Germany in 1887 to study music and began taking drawing lessons on the side. He subsequently contributed cartoons to a number of German and American magazines before turning exclusively to the fine arts around 1908 after a trip to Paris, where he was exposed to the latest developments in modern art. He was active in German avant-garde circles and taught at the Bauhaus from 1919 until 1933, when the progressive art school was closed by the Nazi government. In 1937, he fled Germany, his work having been deemed “degenerate” by the Third Reich, and returned to the United States. Old Gables VI belongs to a series of paintings Feininger made between 1921 and 1954 showing rows of traditional northern European houses pressed one against the other. The focus of this example is on the geometric contours of the buildings and the roofline, which is articulated with thin, draftsman-like lines over imprecise areas of mottled paint; the volumes of the houses, by contrast, are suggested with minor details. The scene is based—whether from memory or from sketches or other works—on the ranks of Gothic and Baroque buildings found in many historic German towns, such as Hildesheim, Lübeck, and Lüneburg. The artist’s wife, Julia Feininger, noted that the versions of this motif he painted after fleeing Germany changed in tone. Of a work similar to this one, Red Gables (1941), she recalled: “I saw the well-known row of Lüneburg houses—but staring at me as never before—the windows like dead eyes, the entire atmosphere changed, as if the evil spirit then pervading Germany had also assaulted this formerly beloved place.” Although Germany was clearly still on his mind, Feininger also began to paint the skyline and skyscrapers of Manhattan in the early 1940s. Feininger likely painted Old Gables VI specifically for a 1944 retrospective of his work mounted at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, which toured the country afterward, paired with works by Marsden Hartley. James Taylor Dunn, Class of 1936, purchased the canvas in 1946 out of the traveling exhibition, and he and his wife, Marie C. Bach Dunn, presented it to the Emerson Gallery in 2001. (SOURCE: Alcauskas, INNOVATIVE APPROACHES, HONORED TRADITIONS, 2017)

Collections

Additional Details

Alternate Titles Old Gables IV

Exhibition History 2017
Clinton, NY (Ruth and Elmer Wellin Museum of Art, Hamilton College). "Innovative Approaches, Honored Traditions: The Ruth and Elmer Wellin Museum of Art at Five Years, Highlights from the Permanent Collection," September 9 - December 10, 2017 (cat. no. 82, illus.);

2005
Clinton, NY (Fred L. Emerson Gallery, Hamilton College). "Hamilton Collects: A Century of Curiosities: The Story of the Hamilton College Collection," September 29 - December 30, 2005 (unnumbered cat.);

c. 1949
Minneapolis, MN (Minneapolis Institute of Art). "Modern Paintings from Twin Cities Collections," dates unknown;

1944-46.
New York, NY (Museum of Modern Art). "Lyonel Feininger," October 24, 1944 - January 14, 1945 (catalogue, checklist p. 47) [MoMA Exh. #264], traveled as "Lyonel Feininger and Marsden Hartley" to: Williamstown, MA (Williams College); Austin, TX (University of Texas, College of Fine Arts); Colorado Springs, CO (Taylor Museum); San Francisco, CA (San Francisco Museum of Art); Minneapolis, MN (Walker Art Center); Jacksonville, IL (Macmurray College); Chicago, IL (Arts Club of Chicago); Buffalo, NY (Albright-Knox Art Gallery), January 19 - February 17, 1946.

Provenance 2001: Hamilton College (Fred L. Emerson Gallery), by gift of James Taylor Dunn and Marie C. Bach Dunn;
September 9, 1946 - 2001: James Taylor Dunn, by purchase from The Museum of Modern Art, New York.

Markings Labels: adhesive label with "THE MUSEUM OF MODERN ART / 11 WEST 53RD STREET NEW YORK / ARTIST FEININGER / TITLE OLD GABLES VI, 1944, oil / CIRCULATING EXHIBITION NO. / MUSEUM NO. 44.1917 BOX NO. 7 [7 added in red ink]" in typeset on verso at upper center; adhesive label with "MINNEAPOLIS ART / INSTITUTE / No. L49.989 / Lent by Mr. J. / [scribble in ink] / Dunn 1949 [date added in ink]" on verso at upper left; red starburst-shaped adhesive label on verso at upper left; adhesive label with "MINNEAPOLIS ART / INSTITUTE / No. 0649.305 / Lent by MIA to / KSTP-TV Studio / 1949 [date added in ink]" in typeset on verso at upper left.

Published References Katherine D. Alcauskas, INNOVATIVE APPROACHES, HONORED TRADITIONS: THE RUTH AND ELMER WELLIN MUSEUM OF ART AT FIVE YEARS, HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE PERMANENT COLLECTION (Clinton, NY: Wellin Museum of Art, 2017), p. 190;

William Salzillo and Susanna White. A CENTURY OF CURIOSITIES: THE STORY OF THE HAMILTON COLLEGE COLLECTION (exh. cat., Emerson Gallery, Hamilton College, 2005), unnumbered catalog.

LIONEL FEININGER, MARSDEN HARTLEY (exhibition catalogue). New York, NY: MoMA, 1944.

Signature Signed "Feininger" at upper right in black paint.

Inscribed "MOCL #86-49" on verso at upper left [upside down] in blue ink; "81" on verso at upper left in white chalk; "44-1917" on verso at upper center in pencil; "Negative [double underlined]: #758 in {Minnesota Historical Society / Picture Department [underlined]} files" on verso at upper right in blue ink; "purchased 1944 when at Albright Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY. / as part of the Feininger-Hartley Exhibition (traveling)" on verso at upper right in black pen; "COLLECTION OF / MR. & MRS. JAMES TAYLOR DUNN / ST. PAUL & MARINE-ON-ST.-CROIX / MINNESOTA [last line underlined]" on verso at center right in black crayon; "1955-1976" on verso at center right [under "St. Paul"] in black ink; "{also Olean, N.Y. 1944-48 / Cooperstown, N.Y. / 1958-56}" on verso at center right [under "St. Croix"] in black ink; "(also: Brownsville, Texas (1976-1982) / and San Antonio, Texas (1982- )" on verso at center right [under "Minnesota"] in black ink.