Your Collection

Add this item to your collection
Harvard Art Museums
Incorrect Username, Email, or Password
An abstract oil painting of buildings.

The painting shows an abstract view of buildings. The colors in the painting are applied in broad planes with many angles. The upper right side is in shades of pink with vertical lines. To the right is a peaked structure with two sets of smaller dark rectangles are bordered by two wide horizontal bars of two different shades of brown. At the bottom a horizontal bar of white with a small black square in the center has a small upright extension with two small vertical rectangles. The left side is bordered with shades of green applied in sharp edged triangles.

Gallery Text

By the late 1910s Feininger’s distinctive cubist-inspired style had made the American painter an important member of the modern art movement in Germany. He was particularly drawn to medieval towns and churches, and while living in Weimar in 1913 he made many sketches of the surrounding villages, including Gross Kromsdorf, the subject of this painting. There is one other known version of this work, which Feininger created in 1915 (Minneapolis Institute of Arts). He made this 1921 painting two years after he returned to Weimar to teach at the newly established Bauhaus school. In both works he flattens space and fractures forms while leaving the architectural elements essentially intact and recognizable. Whereas the earlier painting’s somber palette suggests dusk, the warm colors here evoke afternoon sun. Both paintings illustrate the kind of transformation that inspired Feininger to return to the same subject multiple times, often years after making the original sketch.

Identification and Creation

Object Number
BR64.12
People
Lyonel Feininger, American (New York, NY 1871 - 1956 New York, NY)
Title
Gross Kromsdorf III
Classification
Paintings
Work Type
painting
Date
1921
Culture
German
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/223027

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
100.2 x 80.7 cm (39 7/16 x 31 3/4 in.)
frame: 111.4 x 91.9 x 6 cm (43 7/8 x 36 3/16 x 2 3/8 in.)
Inscriptions and Marks
  • Signed: at u.l.: Feininger 1921
  • label: on upper stretcher bar, at left: Nr. G. 3934 // L.Feininger // Kromsdorf II // Galerie Möller [label is torn and only partially legible]
  • label: on upper stretcher bar, at right: BR // Busch-Reisinger Museum, Harvard University, 29 Kirkland St., Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138 // DEUTSCHE KUNST DES 20. JAHRHUNDERTS DEM BUSCH-REISINGER MUSEUM, HARVARD UNIVERSITY
  • label: on upper stretcher bar, at right: Lyonel Feininger, Gross Kromsdorf III // Check list number 33 crate number 3 // 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 right strechter bar, at top: Museum of Modern Art // LOAN // 55. [...] // FEI[...] [Partial label, fragments missing]
  • label: on center stretcher bar, at left: KUNSTSAMMLUNG NORDRHEIN-WESTFALEN // Die Blaue Vier // 28/03/98-28/26/98, Düsseldorf // Kat.-Nr. 7 // Lyonel Feininger // 'Gross Kromsdorf III', 1921 // Harvard University, Cambridge
  • label: on left stretcher bar, at top: HAUS DER KUNST MÜNCHEN // Ausstellung : Lyonel Feininger // Name das Künstlers: // Titel des Werkes: Groß Kromsdorf III, 1921 // Leigeber: Busch-Reisinger Museum, Cambridge // Technik: Öl Maße: 100 x 80 Kat.-Nr.: 101
  • label: on left stretcher bar, at bottom: 255
  • label: on lower stretcher bar, at left: [...]35 // L. Feininger // Kromsdorf III [This an old and yellowed label, only partially legible]
  • label: on right stretcher bar, at bottom: BR // Busch-Reisinger Museum, Harvard University // Accession # 1964.14 // Artist: // Lyonel Feininger // (1871-1956) // Title: // Gross Kromsdorf III, 1921 // Medium: // Oil on canvas // Credit Line: // Gift, Mrs. Julia Feininger

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
Julia Feininger, gift; to Busch-Reisinger Museum, 1964.

State, Edition, Standard Reference Number

Standard Reference Number
Hess, 219

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Busch-Reisinger Museum, Gift of Mrs. Julia Feininger
Copyright
© Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn
Accession Year
1964
Object Number
BR64.12
Division
Modern and Contemporary Art
Contact
am_moderncontemporary@harvard.edu
Permissions

The Harvard Art Museums encourage the use of images found on this website for personal, noncommercial use, including educational and scholarly purposes. To request a higher resolution file of this image, please submit an online request.

Publication History

  • Hans Hess, Lyonel Feininger, Harry N. Abrams, Inc. (New York, NY, 1961), cat. no. 219
  • Paintings, Sculpture and Drawings from the Fogg Art Museum, exh. cat., Albright-Knox Art Gallery (Buffalo, NY, 1967), cat. 5
  • Charles Werner Haxthausen, The Busch-Reisinger Museum, Harvard University, Abbeville Press (New York, NY, 1980), p. 23, repr.
  • Peter Nisbet and Emilie Norris, Busch-Reisinger Museum: History and Holdings, Harvard University Art Museums (Cambridge, MA, 1991), p. 71, ill.
  • Vivian Endicott Barnett, Die Blaue Vier : Feininger, Jawlensky, Kandinsky, Klee in der Neuen Welt, exh. cat., ed. Vivian Endicott Barnett and Josef Helfenstein, DuMont (Cologne, 1997), cat. no. 7; color illus. p. 154
  • Vivian Endicott Barnett, ed., The Blue Four : Feininger, Jawlensky, Kandinsky, and Klee in the New World, exh. cat., DuMont (Cologne, 1997), cat. no. 7; color illus. p. 154
  • 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), cover (detail); p. 139
  • Peter Nisbet, Lyonel Feininger Drawings and Watercolors, exh. cat., Harvard Art Museums and Hatje Cantz (Cambridge, MA and Ostfildern, Germany, 2011), p. 13, fig. 1

Exhibition History

  • Lyonel Feininger: A Retrospective, Dallas Museum for Contemporary Arts, 04/10/1963 - 05/05/1963
  • Paintings, Sculpture and Drawings from the Fogg Art Museum, Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, 05/08/1967 - 06/11/1967
  • 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
  • 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
  • Lyonel Feininger in Germany: 1887-1937, Busch-Reisinger Museum, Cambridge, 02/10/1996 - 05/12/1996
  • The Blue Four, Kunstmuseum Bern, Bern, 12/05/1997 - 03/08/1998; Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Dusseldorf, 03/28/1998 - 06/28/1998
  • Modell Bauhaus, Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin-Kreuzberg, 07/22/2009 - 10/04/2009
  • 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
  • 32Q: 1520 Art in Germany Between the Wars (Interwar and Bauhaus), Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 11/16/2014 - 12/10/2018; 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