Lyonel Feininger
Dreimaster mit Flagge, 3 und Sonnenuntergang
1919
Woodcut on light Japan laid paper. Letterhead on a letter sent to Dr. Koch, Graphisches Kabinett von Bergh & Co., Düsseldorf, by the artist on March 3, 1920 7.8 x 8.9 cm (28 x 21.6 cm) Framed under glass. The letter signed 'Ihr sehr ergebener/Lyonel Feininger' by the artist in black pen and ink and dated 'Staatliches Bauhaus/Weimar/d. 3. März 1920' at the top. Third and last variant of this motif (cf. Prasse W 130, 131, all used as letterheads). - The letter with horizontal and vertical fold traces at the centre. Evenly browned, overall somewhat creased; a small tear resp. gap in the fold to left and centre of sheet.
In March, a Feininger exhibition took place at Graphisches Kabinett von Bergh & Co. on the occasion of which, as the letter explains, Feininger presented "Handzeichnungen" [hand drawings], "Handgedruckte Holzschnitte, Radierungen " [hand-printed woodcuts, etchings] for which he had stipulated net prices. He concluded: "I don't like parting with originals at all anymore. I primarily enclosed them for the sake of completeness."
Catalogue Raisonné
Prasse W 302
Provenance
Private collection, North Rhine-Westphalia
Literature
Peter Barth, Von Nolde bis Dix. Der Düsseldorfer Arzt, Sammler und Kunsthändler Dr. Hans Koch und "Das Graphische Kabinett von Bergh & Co.", Galerie Remmert und Barth, Düsseldorf 1994/1995, p. 27 with illus.