Lyonel Feininger

Lyonel Charles Feininger (July 17, 1871 - January 13, 1956); was a German-American painter and caricaturist.

Feininger was born to parents of German descent and grew up in New York City. He moved to Berlin to study at the Konigliche Akademie Berlin under Ernst Hancke and art schools in Berlin with Karl Schlabitz and in Paris with sculptor Filippo Colarossi. He started working as an caricaturist for several magazines including Harper’s Round Table, Harper’s Young People, Humoristische Blatter, Lustige Blatter, Das Narrenschiff, Berliner Tageblatt and Ulk.

Feininger married Clara Furst, daughter of the painter Gustav Furst and they had two daughters. Later he had also several children together with Julia Berg and they later married.

The artist is represented with drawings at the exhibitions of the annual Berlin Secession in the years 1901 through 1903.

Feiniger only started working as an artist at the age of 36, after having worked as a commercial caricaturist for twenty years for various newspapers and magazines in both the USA and Germany; he was a member of the Berliner Sezession in 1909, was associated with expressionist group Die Brucke, the Novembergruppe, Gruppe 1919, and The Blue Four. He also taught at the Bauhaus for several years, beginning 1919.

When the NSDAP came to power in 1936, the situation became unbearable for Feininger and his wife, who was partly Jewish. They moved to America after his work was exhibited in the 'degenerate art' (Entartete Kunst) in 1936, but before the 1937 exhibition in Munich.

Feininger was one of the very few fine artists also to draw comic strips as a cartoonist. His short-lived strips, The Kin-Der-Kids and Wee Willie Winkie's World were noted for their fey humor and graphic experimentation.

His son, Andreas Feininger, became famous as a photographer of New York City.

The paintings are the excellent portrayal of the events and scenes that we see around us. The painters are the best cameras of the world. They reproduce many different types of pictures. They even draw imaginary pictures that do not exist in this world. We tend to use both thinned oil paints and dense oil paints. Masterpieces can be dyed more than once, but each time it may be different from the existing paintings.h

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