The Green Bridge II

Artist Lyonel Feininger (American, 1871–1956, active in Germany 1887–1937)

Date1916

MediumOil on canvas

Dimensions49 3/8 x 39 1/2 in. (125.4 x 100.3 cm)
Frame: 53 x 43 1/2 x 2 1/4 in. (134.6 x 110.5 x 5.7 cm)

ClassificationsPaintings

Credit LineGift of Mrs. Ferdinand Möller

Object numberG.57.38.1

On View

On view

Collections

ProvenanceCreated Berlin, 1916; collection of the artist; Maj. Hülsmann, Berlin, after November 27, 1930 [1]; Ferdinand Möller, Berlin, by 1938 [2]; [on extended loan to the Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, MI, 1938–1957]; seized by the Office of Alien Property, U.S. Dept. of Justice, in Detroit, 1950 [3]; acquired by Maria Möller-Garny, Cologne, 1956 [4]; given to NCMA, 1957.

[1] Julia Feininger (the artist’s wife) loaned the painting to the exhibitions in Dresden, 1929, and Weimar, July 1929–November 1930. She asked that the loans be returned to her after reading that the Weimar museum had been forced to remove modern paintings by order of the (National Socialist) government. See letter from Julia Feininger to Wilhelm Kohler, November 27, 1930, and letter from Sabine Walter, August 7, 1997.
[2] Möller lent the painting to DIA in 1938.
[3] See letter from Eleanor Perry, Detroit Institute of Arts to Office of Alien Property, U.S. Dept. of Justice, July 13, 1955. See also Peter Nisbet essay, NCMA Bulletin, 1997, p. 68.
[4] After F. Möller’s death, his wife came to an agreement with the U.S. Government, that she would donate two paintings (including this one) to U.S. museums and buy back the rest. See Nisbet, 1997