Brücke I (Bridge I)

Lyonel Feininger

1913

On View in Gertrude Bernoudy Gallery, Room 3

Born in the United States, Lyonel Feininger spent most of his life in Germany. He was a member of the German Expressionist group Der Blaue Reiter, whose works demonstrate a commitment to spirituality and subjective expression. Brücke I is the first in a series of six works depicting a stone bridge over the Ilm River in the city of Weimar. Feininger employed the faceted planes of Cubism to explore correspondences between the architecture of the bridge, the simple geometry of the houses beyond, and organic forms of nature. The overlapping planes of translucent color play across the canvas in a series of repeating arches and curving forms, imparting a feeling of energy and rhythm as well as a sense of order and harmony. The work originally belonged to a German public museum, the Kestner Museum in Hannover, until it was seized by the Nazi government in 1937 as part of the "degenerate art" action. [Permanent collection label, 2019. Revised 2023]

Artist Lyonel Feininger (American, 1871–1956)
Title Brücke I (Bridge I)
Date 1913
Medium Oil on canvas
Dimensions unframed | 31 1/2 x 39 1/2 in.
Credit line University purchase, Bixby Fund, 1950
Object number WU 3822

Technique oil painting
Work type painting
Theme Architecture and Built Environment

Currently on View Gertrude Bernoudy Gallery, Room 3

Real / Radical / Psychological: The Collection on Display
Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Washington University in St. Louis, 09/09/2016 - 01/15/2017

Expressionism in Germany and France: From Van Gogh to Kandinsky
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 06/08/2014 - 09/14/2014
Van Gogh to Kandinsky: Impressionism to Expressionism, 1900–1914 (MBAM), Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, 10/06/2014 - 01/25/2015

Frederick Hartt and American Abstraction in the 1950s: Building the Collection at Washington University in St. Louis
Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Washington University in St. Louis, 05/04/2012 - 08/27/2012

Lyonel Feininger: From Gelmeroda to Manhattan
Lyonel Feininger—From Gelmeroda to Manhattan, Neue Nationalgalerie (Berlin, Germany), 07/03/1998 - 10/11/1998
Lyonel Feininger—From Gelmeroda to Manhattan, Haus der Kunst, Munich, 11/01/1998 - 01/24/1999

American Modernism
Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Washington University in St. Louis, 01/12/1998 - 04/05/1998

Abstract Expressionism: American Art in the 1950s and 1960s
Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Washington University in St. Louis, 01/17/1997 - 04/06/1997

A Gallery of Modern Art
Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Washington University in St. Louis, 08/09/1994 - 10/16/1994

Twentieth Century Art from the Washington University Collection
Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Washington University in St. Louis, 01/28/1994 - 03/27/1994

Cubists, Surrealists, and Expressionists
Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Washington University in St. Louis, 05/15/1983 - 09/04/1983

The Centennial Exhibition
Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Washington University in St. Louis, 05/15/1981 - 10/11/1981

Cubist, Expressionist, and Surrealist Paintings and Sculptures
Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Washington University in St. Louis, 09/20/1980 - 11/02/1980

Portraits and Landscapes
Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Washington University in St. Louis, 06/01/1978 - 08/31/1978

Lyonel Feininger
Kunsthaus Zürich, 05/24/1973 - 07/22/1973
Haus der Kunst, Munich, 03/23/1973 - 05/12/1973

The Cubist Epoch
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 12/15/1970 - 02/21/1971
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 04/07/1971 - 06/07/1971

Lyonel Feininger
Marlborough-Gerson Gallery (New York, New York), 04/02/1969 - 05/03/1969

Lyonel Feininger, 1871–1956: A Memorial Exhibition
Feininger Retrospective, Pasadena Art Museum, 04/26/1966 - 05/29/1966
Feininger Retrospective, Milwaukee Art Museum, 07/10/1966 - 08/11/1966
Feininger Retrospective, Baltimore Museum of Art, 09/07/1966 - 10/23/1966

Washington University Collection of Modern Paintings and Sculpture from Daumier to Pollock
Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 04/06/1966 - 05/08/1966

10 Americans: Davis, Demuth, Dove, Feininger, Graves, Marin, O’Keefe, Shahn, Tobey
Milwaukee Art Museum (Milwaukee, Wisconsin), 09/21/1961 - 11/05/1961

German Expressionism
Columbus Museum of Art (Columbus, Ohio), 02/10/1961 - 03/09/1961

Opening Exhibition of Mark C. Steinberg Memorial Hall
Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Washington University in St. Louis, 04/29/1960

Cubism in Retrospect, 1911–1929
Denver Art Museum (Denver, Colorado), 01/01/1959 - 02/01/1959

European Traveling Show [verify venues/dates]
Oevres d’Art: Des Musées Universitaires Américains. Peintures, Sculptures ancienness et modernes, organized by the College Art Association of America [verify dates], Musée des Beaux-Arts (Lyon, France), 03/01/1957 - 04/01/1957
L’Art dans les Collections Universitaires Americaines, organized by the College Art Association of America, Palais des Beaux-Arts (Bozar) (Brussels, Belgium), 12/08/1956 - 12/30/1956
Meesterwerken uit Amerika Universiteitsmusea, organized by the College Art Association of America, Centraal Museum (Utrecht, Netherlands), 08/04/1956 - 09/09/1956
Amerika visar konst ur universitetssamlingar, organized by the College Art Association of America, Radhus (Malmo, Sweden), 06/30/1956 - 07/15/1956

A Tribute to Curt Valentin
Saint Louis Art Museum, 01/14/1955 - 02/14/1955

An Exhibition of Contemporary Art
Fine Arts Center Gallery, University of Arkansas, 04/15/1951 - 05/15/1951

Lyonel Feininger
Nationagalerie (Berlin, Germany), 07/17/1931

Frederick Hartt and American Abstraction in the 1950s: Building the Collection at Washington University in St. Louis 2012

1950
Buchholz Gallery, New York

Inscription [UL:] Feininger '13

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