About the Artwork
The sharply defined vertical silhouettes of four sails cut through the expanse of blue sky, which is bordered at the bottom by a horizontal strip of deep green water. Lyonel Feininger mediated the clash between the verticals and horizontals by introducing diagonal lines that rhythmically divide the composition, providing a unifying logic.
Feininger’s fascination with sailing boats and sea started in his childhood, when he observed a marine traffic on the Hudson River in New York: “In the 1880s I remember the Hudson, teeming with vessels, schooners, sloops, not to speak of the magnificent side-wheelers plying up and down the river . . .” This passionate interest in marine subjects continued after Feininger left the United States for Germany, where he taught at the Bauhaus and participated in landmark expressionist exhibitions.
In 1929, this painting entered the collection of the National Gallery in Berlin. In 1937, Nazi officials in Germany targeted Feininger in the “degenerate art” campaign, prompting the artist to return to the United States. Sailboats — like many other avant-garde works that did not conform to the Nazi’s ideal of national art — was deemed “degenerate” and confiscated. A few years later after the painting had entered the art market, Detroiter Robert H. Tannahill acquired it for his collection.
Sailboats
1929
Lyonel Feininger
1871-1956
American
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Oil on canvas
Unframed: 17 × 28 1/2 inches (43.2 × 72.4 cm) Framed: 21 3/8 × 33 × 1 3/16 inches (54.3 × 83.8 × 3 cm)
Paintings
European Modern Art to 1970
Gift of Robert H. Tannahill
69.305
Restricted
Markings
Signed, upper right: Feininger 29
Provenance
October 1929, on consignment from the artist (Galerie Ferdinand Möller, Berlin, Germany);December 1929, purchased by Verein der Freunde der Nationalgalerie Berlin (Association of Friends of the National Gallery in Berlin) for National Gallery (Berlin, Germany).
by 1940, (Buchholz Gallery, New York, New York, USA);
April 1940-1969, Robert H. Tannahill [1893-1969] (Grosse Pointe Farms, Michigan, USA);
1969-present, gift to the Detroit Institute of Arts (Detroit, Michigan, USA)
For more information on provenance, please visit:
Provenance pageExhibition History
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The exhibition history of a number of objects in our collection only begins after their acquisition by the museum, and may reflect an incomplete record.
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The Robert Hudson Tannahill Bequest to the Detroit Institute of Arts. Exh. cat., DIA. Detroit, 1970, pp. 25, 30 (ill.).
Gombrich, E. Story of Art. London, 1972, p. 462 (ill.).
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Credit Line for Reproduction
Lyonel Feininger, Sailboats, 1929, oil on canvas. Detroit Institute of Arts, Gift of Robert H. Tannahill, 69.305.
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