Live Auction 8992Impressionist/Modern
Lyonel Feininger (1871-1958)
Lot 98 PROPERTY FROM THE COLLECTION OF SIMONE AND JEAN TIROCHE

Lyonel Feininger (1871-1958)

Le train

Closed21 June 2013

Price Realised

GBP 4,375

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Lyonel Feininger (1871-1958)
Le train
signed and dated 'Feininger 30.XII.52' (lower left), inscribed 'A happy new year! to the Railway Friend!' (centre right)
pastel and pen and ink and wash on paper
4 5/8 x 5 7/8 in. (11.9 x 15.2 cm.)
Executed on 30 December 1952

George Zabriskie, Ohio, a gift from the artist.
Anonymous sale, Sotheby's, New York, 16 November 1989, lot 162 (part). Anonymous sale, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, 11 June 1990, lot 59.
Acquired at the above sale, and thence by descent to the present owners.

Specialist note

In 1945 Feininger was invited to teach for the summer session at Black Mountain College, North Carolina. There, besides his former Bauhaus colleagues, Gropius and Albers, he met the young poet George Zabriskie (1918-1989). Feininger and Zabriskie became close friends through a mutual passion for railroads. From 1945 to 1955 they corresponded, exchanging poems and sketches related to their common interest. These two sketches show that Feininger, although in his eighties, still delighted in the whimsical and the fantastic.