  About the Artwork
  
  
  After an exposure to cubism at Salon des Indépendants during his visit to Paris in 1911, Lyonel Feininger developed a style of interlocking, prismatic planes that he applied to subjects of landscapes, architecture, and vessels on the sea.
Sidewheeler II depicts a boat, identifiable by the two distinct side wheels that propel it through the water. The semicircular shape of the wheels contrasts with abstracted triangular and rectangular forms defining the boat and the choppy water surface. The wheels’ dusty yellow stands out from the subdued palette of layered greens, browns, and whites, occasionally enlivened by splashes of orange. Despite the tempered color scheme, the painting is replete with energy that infuses the boat, water, and sky with equal intensity and merges all these elements, leaving only remnants of perspective.
  
  
  Title
  Sidewheeler II
  
  
  Artwork Date
  1913
  
  Artist
  Lyonel Feininger
  
  
  
  Life Dates
  1871-1956
  
  
  
  
  Nationality
  
  
  
  Please note:
  Definitions for nationality may vary significantly, depending on chronology and world events.
  Some definitions include:
  Belonging to a people having a common origin based on a geography and/or descent and/or tradition and/or culture and/or religion and/or language, or sharing membership in a legally defined nation.
  
  
  
  American
  
  
  
  Culture
  
  
  
  Please note:
  Cultures may be defined by the language, customs, religious beliefs, social norms, and material traits of a group.
  
  
  
  
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  Medium
  Oil on canvas
  
  
  Dimensions
  Unframed: 31 3/4 × 39 5/8 inches (80.6 × 100.6 cm)
  Framed: 37 3/8 × 45 3/8 × 3 1/2 inches (94.9 × 115.3 × 8.9 cm)
  
  
  Classification
  Paintings
  
  
  Department
  European Modern Art to 1970
  
  
  Credit
  City of Detroit Purchase
  
  
  
  Accession Number
  
  
  
  This unique number is assigned to an individual artwork as part of the cataloguing process at the time of entry into the permanent collection.
  Most frequently, accession numbers begin with the year in which the artwork entered the museum’s holdings.
  For example, 2008.3 refers to the year of acquisition and notes that it was the 3rd of that year. The DIA has a few additional systems—no longer assigned—that identify specific donors or museum patronage groups.
  
  
  
  21.208
  
  
  Copyright
  Restricted
