  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 medicated 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 permanently to the United States. Sailboats - like many other modernist/advant-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.
  
  
  Title
  Sailboats
  
  
  Artwork Date
  1929
  
  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: 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)
  
  
  Classification
  Paintings
  
  
  Department
  European Modern Art to 1970
  
  
  Credit
  Gift of Robert H. Tannahill
  
  
  
  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.
  
  
  
  69.305
  
  
  Copyright
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