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A painting of a stylized seascape.

The painting shows a large white shape of straight lines and sharp above a gray horizon. Thin, lightly applied rectangles of white radiate out from it across a sky which is blue fading to gray where the sea meets the sky. A line of black with brown striations separate the sky from the foreground which is light brown. The light brown gradually becomes darker until it becomes dark brown at the bottom edge.

Identification and Creation

Object Number
BR50.414
People
Lyonel Feininger, American (New York, NY 1871 - 1956 New York, NY)
Title
Bird Cloud
Other Titles
Original Language Title: Vogelwolke [Wolke nach dem Sturm]
Classification
Paintings
Work Type
painting
Date
1926
Culture
German
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/304376

Location

Location
Level 1, Room 1520, Modern and Contemporary Art, Art in Germany Between the Wars
View this object's location on our interactive map

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
43.8 x 71.1 cm (17 1/4 x 28 in.)
framed: 49 x 76 x 6 cm (19 5/16 x 29 15/16 x 2 3/8 in.)
Inscriptions and Marks
  • Signed: at l.r.: Feininger 1926
  • label: on backing-board, at u.l.: HAUS DER KUNST MÜNCHEN // Ausstellung : Lyonel Feininger // Name das Künstlers: // Titel des Werkes: Wolke nach dem Sturm, 1926 // Leigeber: Busch-Reisinger Museum, Cambridge // Technik: Öl Maße: 42.5 x 70 Kat.-Nr.: 115
  • label: on backing-board, at u.l.: YAMATO TRANSPORT CO., LTD. // FINE ARTS DIVISION // EXHIBT. Modern Art at Harvard // CASE NO. 9 CATAL. NO. 43
  • label: on backing-board, at l.l.: MODERN ART AT HARVARD // Bunkamura Museum of Art, 7/31-9/26/99; Takamatsu City Museum of Art, 10/9-11/14/99; Matsuzakaya Art Museum, 12/2-12/17/99; Oita City Art Museum, 1/6-2/6/2000; Museum of Modern Art, 2/11-3/36/2000 // Painting // Lyonel Feininger (New York, NY, USA, 1871 - 1956, New York, NY, USA) // Bird Cloud // Oil on canvas // BR50.414 Crate MAH09
  • label: on backing-board, u.l.: Haus der Kunst, München Lyonel Feininger 1.11.98-24.1.99 // Kisten Nr: 72 // Busch-Reisinger Museum, Harvard University // Lyonel Feininger // Wolke nach dem Sturm, 1926 // Öl auf LW
  • label: on backing-board, u.l.: FEININGER EXHIBITION: APRIL 1969 // Marlborough Marlborough-Gerson Gallery Inc. 41 East 57th Street New York 22 Plaza 2-5353 // Artist FEININGER, Lyonel Media oil on canvas // Title The Bird Cloud Year 1926 // Size 17 ¼ x 28 inches cm. Stock No. 389x Photo No.
  • label: on backing-board, u.r.: BR // Busch-Reisinger Museum, Harvard University, 29 Kirkland St., Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138 // DEUTSCHE KUNST DES 20. JAHRHUNDERTS DEM BUSCH-REISINGER MUSEUM, HARVARD UNIVERSITY // Lyonel Feininger, Bird Cloud (Vogelwolke) // Check list number 40 crate number 13 // Städel, Frankfurt Oct. 21, 1982 - Jan. 19, 1983 // Bauhaus-Archiv, Berlin Feb. 10, 1983 - April 1983 // Kunstmuseum, Düsseldorf May 8 - June 26, 1983
  • label: on backing-board, at l.r.: BR // Busch-Reisinger Museum, Harvard University // Accession # 1950.414 // Artist: // Lyonel Feininger // (1871-1956) // Title: // Bird Cloud, 1926 // Medium: // Oil on canvas // Credit Line:
    Museum Purchase // in memory of Eda K. Loeb
  • label: on backing-board, u.r.: BUSCH // FOGG ART MUSEUM // LOAN FOR EXAMINATION // 23342.1

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
Lyonel Feininger, gift; to Julia Feininger, by 1943-1950, sold; to Busch-Reisinger Museum, 1950.

NOTE: Letter from L. Feininger to J. B. Neumann, Oct. 4, 1943, describes painting as belonging to his wife.

State, Edition, Standard Reference Number

Standard Reference Number
Hess, 268

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Busch-Reisinger Museum, Purchase in memory of Eda K. Loeb
Copyright
© Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn
Accession Year
1950
Object Number
BR50.414
Division
Modern and Contemporary Art
Contact
am_moderncontemporary@harvard.edu
Permissions

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Publication History

  • Hans Hess, Lyonel Feininger, Harry N. Abrams, Inc. (New York, NY, 1961), cat. no. 268, color illus. p. 101
  • Charles Werner Haxthausen, "The Busch-Reisinger Museum, Harvard: the Germanic Tradition", Apollo (May 1978), vol. 107, no. 195, pp. 403-413, p. 411, repr. p. 411 as fig. 8
  • Charles Werner Haxthausen, The Busch-Reisinger Museum, Harvard University, Abbeville Press (New York, NY, 1980), pp. 13, 24, 115, repr. p. 24
  • Caroline A. Jones, Modern Art at Harvard: The Formation of the Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century Collections of the Harvard University Art Museums (New York, NY and Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Art Museums and Abbeville Press, 1985). With an essay by John Coolidge and a preface by John M. Rosenfield. To accompany the inaugural exhibition at the Sackler Museum, Oct 21 1985 - Jan 5 1986, p. 60, fig. 51, ill. (b/w)
  • Kristin A. Mortimer and William G. Klingelhofer, Harvard University Art Museums: A Guide to the Collections, Harvard University Art Museums and Abbeville Press (Cambridge and New York, 1986), no. 378, p. 316, repr.
  • Anna Rowland, The Bauhaus Sourcebook: Bauhaus Style and Its Worldwide Influence, Van Nostrand Reinhold Co. (New York, 1990), pp. 158-159
  • Peter Nisbet and Emilie Norris, Busch-Reisinger Museum: History and Holdings, Harvard University Art Museums (Cambridge, MA, 1991), p. 61, ill.
  • Doreen Ehrlich, The Bauhaus, Magna Books (London, 1991), p. 38
  • Timothy Anglin Burgard, American Art at Harvard: Cultures and Contexts, brochure, Harvard University Art Museums (Cambridge, MA, 1994), pp. 4, 11, cat. 35
  • Masterpieces of world art : Fogg Art Museum, Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Busch-Reisinger Museum, 1997
  • Lyonel Feininger : von Gelmeroda nach Manhattan, exh. cat., Staatliche Museen zu Berlin--Preussischer Kulturbesitz (Berlin, Germany, 1998), p.143, cat. no. 72
  • Peter Nisbet and Joseph Koerner, The Busch-Reisinger Museum, Harvard University Art Museums, ed. Peter Nisbet, Harvard University Art Museums and Scala Publishers Ltd. (Cambridge, MA and London, England, 2007), p. 123
  • Stephan Wolohojian and Alvin L. Clark, Jr., Harvard Art Museum/ Handbook, ed. Stephan Wolohojian, Harvard Art Museum (Cambridge, 2008), p. 204, ill.
  • Barbara Haskell, John Carlin, and Bryan Gilliam, Lyonel Feininger, exh. cat., Somogy Éditions d'Art (Montreal, Quebec, Canada, 2011), p. 125, fig. 129, ill.
  • Peter Nisbet, Lyonel Feininger Drawings and Watercolors, exh. cat., Harvard Art Museums and Hatje Cantz (Cambridge, MA and Ostfildern, Germany, 2011), p. 14, fig. 2
  • Laura Muir, Object Lessons: The Bauhaus and Harvard, Harvard Art Museums (Cambridge, 2021), pp. 261, 279, plate 26, ill. (color)
  • Peter Poellner, Value in Modernity: The Philisophy of Existential Modernism in Nietzsche, Scheler, Sartre, Musil, Oxford University Press (UK) (Oxford and New York, 2022), Cover image

Exhibition History

  • 100th Anniversary of Lyonel Feininger (The), Haus der Kunst München, Munich, 02/26/1973 - 07/24/1973
  • From Werkbund to Bauhaus: Art and Design in Germany 1900-1934, Busch-Reisinger Museum, Cambridge, 05/12/1980 - 04/26/1980
  • Works from the 20th Century Collection of the Busch-Reisinger, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 06/15/1980 - 09/01/1980; Wildenstein Gallery, New York, New York, 09/23/1980 - 10/24/1980
  • 20th-Century Works on Paper from the Permanent Collection, Busch-Reisinger Museum, Cambridge, 09/07/1981 - 11/11/1981
  • 19th- and 20th-Century Works on Paper from the Permanent Collection, Busch-Reisinger Museum, Cambridge, 02/08/1982
  • Art of the Weimar Era, Busch-Reisinger Museum, Cambridge, 04/05/1982 - 05/22/1982
  • Deutsche Kunst des 20. Jahrhunderts aus dem Busch-Reisinger Museum, Stadtische Galerie im Stadelschen Kunstinstitut, Frankfurt, 10/23/1982 - 01/16/1983; Bauhaus-Archiv, Berlin 30, 02/10/1983 - 04/17/1983; Kunstmuseum Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf, 05/08/1983 - 06/26/1983
  • American Art at Harvard: Cultures and Contexts, Harvard University Art Museums, Cambridge, 10/01/1994 - 12/30/1994
  • Lyonel Feininger in Germany: 1887-1937, Busch-Reisinger Museum, Cambridge, 02/10/1996 - 05/12/1996
  • Lyonel Feininger: From Gelmeroda to Manhattan, Nationalgalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Berlin, 07/03/1998 - 10/11/1998; Haus der Kunst München, Munich, 10/29/1998 - 01/17/1999
  • Modern Art at Harvard, Bunkamura Museum of Art, Tokyo, 07/31/1999 - 09/26/1999; Takamatsu City Museum of Art, Kagawa, 10/09/1999 - 11/14/1999; Matsuzakaya Art Museum, Nagoya, 12/02/1999 - 12/27/1999; Oita City Museum, Oita, 01/06/2000 - 02/06/2000; Museum of Modern Art, Ibaraki, Ibaraki, 02/11/2000 - 03/26/2000
  • Lyonel Feininger: Drawings and Watercolors from the William S. Lieberman Bequest to the Busch-Reisinger Museum, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Berlin, 02/26/2011 - 05/15/2011; Pinakothek der Moderne, Munchen, 06/02/2011 - 07/17/2011
  • Lyonel Feininger: At the Edge of the World, The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Montreal, 01/16/2012 - 05/13/2012
  • 32Q: 1520 Art in Germany Between the Wars (Interwar and Bauhaus), Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 10/03/2017 - 04/04/2018; Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 08/05/2019 - 01/01/2050

Subjects and Contexts

  • The Bauhaus

Verification Level

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of Modern and Contemporary Art at am_moderncontemporary@harvard.edu