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Image for Series 1: Letters to Alfred Churchill, 1890-1920

This collection has been digitized: View Collection

About the Alfred Vance Churchill papers regarding Lyonel Feininger

All information on this page comes from A Finding Aid to the Alfred Vance Churchill Papers Regarding Lyonel Feininger, 1888-1944 , in the Archives of American Art by Erin Corley, in the Archives of American Art. (Printable Version of Finding Aid: PDF, 74 KB )

Biographical Information | Description of the Collection | How to Use the Collection

Biographical Information [+]

Lyonel Feininger (1871-1956), also known as Léonell Feininger, was born in New York City in 1871 to German violinist Karl Feininger and American singer Elizabeth Feininger. He spent his childhood in New York City and became interested in art at a young age. Although born in New York, Lyonel Feininger lived and worked mostly in Germany. READ MORE

In 1887 Feininger's parents took him to Germany to study violin, but he began taking drawing classes at the Hamburg Kunstgewerbeschule (College of Arts and Crafts) and subsequently moved to Berlin to study art at the Königliche Akademie under Ernst Hancke. During this time he met and befriended a fellow art student, Alfred Vance Churchill, who later became an art historian and curator. They would exchange letters and artwork for many years. For a brief time Feininger studied at the College St. Servais in Liège and with Filippo Colarossi in Paris, but returned to Berlin to study at the Akademie der Kunste with Karl Schlabitz.

Feininger's career as cartoonist started in 1894. He was working for several German, French and American magazines and illustrated two comic strips "The Kin-der-Kids" and "Wee Willie Winkie's World" for the Chicago Tribune. During this period he married Clara Fürst and they had two daughters, Lore and Marianne. He also exhibited drawings at the annual Berlin Secession and the Great Berlin Art Exhibition.

Feininger separated from his wife after starting an affair with Julia Borg. He and Julia traveled to Paris where he became greatly influenced by the French avant-garde. When they returned to Berlin in 1908, he gave up illustration in favor of painting. He and Julia were then married and they had three sons, Andreas, Laurence, and Theodore Lux.

Feininger became a member of the Berlin Secession and exhibited his paintings, primarily landscapes inspired by French cubism. Around 1912, Feininger became affiliated with the German expressionist groups Die Brücke and Der Blaue Reiter, and the Novembergruppe in 1918, where he met Walter Gropius. When Gropius established the Bauhaus in Weimar, Germany in 1919, Feininger became the master artist in charge of the printmaking workshop. He taught there and continued to develop his painting, and in 1925 he formed the Blue Four with Alexei Jawlensky, Paul Klee, and Vasily Kandinsky. When the Bauhaus moved to Dessau in 1926 he became an artist-in-residence and stayed there until it closed in 1933.

After the Nazi's declared Feininger's work "degenerate" in 1937, he moved to California where he taught at Mills College. He settled permanently in New York and had great success exhibiting his work in the United States, which culminated in a joint retrospective in 1944 with Marsden Hartley. Lyonel Feininger died in 1956 at the age of 84. HIDE

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Description of the Collection

Overview - Scope and Contents

This small collection of Alfred Vance Churchill papers regarding Lyonel Feininger measures 0.5 linear feet and dates from 1888 to 1944. Found here are 36 long and detailed letters from Feininger, a painter and illustrator, to his friend Alfred Churchill (many letters from 1890 are illustrated), and a scrapbook compiled by Churchill containing 117 sketches by Feininger, a photograph of Feininger, clippings, and 47 sketches and reproductions by Churchill. There are also additional loose clippings and magazines, an exhibition catalog, three photographs of Feininger and one of his children.

Arrangement and Series Description

The collection is arranged into 4 series:

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Subjects

This collection is indexed in the online catalog of the Archives of American Art under the following terms:

Subjects-Topical:
- Painting, Modern -- 20th century -- Germany
- Painting, Modern -- 20th century -- United States
- Painters -- Germany
- Expressionism (Art) -- Germany
- Graphic arts -- Germany
- Graphic arts -- United States
- Cartooning -- United States
- Cartooning -- Germany
- Cartoonists -- Germany
- Graphic artists -- United States
- Printmakers -- Germany

Types of Materials:
- Scrapbooks
- Photographs
- Sketches

Names:
- Feininger, Lyonel,1871-1956

Provenance

The collection was donated in 1956 by Mrs. Alfred (Marie) Churchill.

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How the Collection was Processed

The Alfred Vance Churchill papers regarding Lyonel Feininger received a preliminary level of processing at some point after donation. Material was microfilmed in the order that it was donated on reels D5 and 468. The collection was fully processed by Erin Corley in 2006 and digitized in 2007 with funding provided by the Terra Foundation for American Art.

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How to Use the Collection

Restrictions on Use

The Alfred Vance Churchill papers regarding Lyonel Feininger are owned by the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution. Literary rights as possessed by the donor have been dedicated to public use for research, study, and scholarship. The collection is subject to all copyright laws.

The collection has been digitized and is available online via AAA's website.

Available Formats

This collection has been digitized. View the Alfred Vance Churchill papers regarding Lyonel Feininger online

The collection was digitized in 2007 and is available via the Archives of American Art's website.

Related Collections

The Archives of American Art also has several collections related to Lyonel Feininger, including Letters to Beatrice Lippincott (Garvan) from Lyonel and Julia Feininger available on microfilm reel 4909, and a 1939 letter from Feininger to Alfred Neumeyer, available on reel 2804. The archives also has additional collections of loaned papers available only on microfilm: Lyonel Feininger papers loaned for microfilming by Feininger's friend, H. Francis Kortheuer and available on reel D5 and D29, and Sketches by Feininger loaned for microfilming by Fred Werner and available on reel D5.

The most complete Lyonel Feininger Archive, donated by the Feininger family, is located at Harvard University. The Alfred Vance Churchill papers, 1828-1948, are located at Smith College Archives.

Separated Materials

The Alfred Vance Churchill papers regarding Lyonel Feininger included approximately 23 photographs of works of art by Feininger. These items were removed from the collection upon receipt and added to Photographs of Works of Art, Collection One, and microfilmed on reel 468.

How to Cite this Collection

Alfred Vance Churchill papers regarding Lyonel Feininger, 1888-1944. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

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Time	Category	Message	Count
0ms	Fusebox	Including fusebox.init.cfm	1
16ms	Fusebox	Compiling requested fuseaction 'Main.OverView'	1
16ms	Fusebox	Including parsed file for 'Main.OverView'	1
938ms	Fusebox	Request completed	1

About the Alfred Vance Churchill papers regarding Lyonel Feininger

Biographical Information [+]

Description of the Collection

Overview - Scope and Contents

Arrangement and Series Description

Subjects

Provenance

How the Collection was Processed

How to Use the Collection

Restrictions on Use

Available Formats

Related Collections

Separated Materials

How to Cite this Collection

Fusebox debugging: