The Dawn of Modernism: Lyonel Feininger’s Early Successes as a Painter
Paris in 1911: The Salon des Indépendants opens its doors, and the latest trends in painting are unveiled to the public.
At that time, the spotlight in “Salle 41” was on the Cubist circle, featuring works by, among others, Robert Delaunay, Fernand Léger, Albert Gleizes, and Marie Laurencin. The extensive exhibition, featuring more than 6,000 works, also included Henri Matisse and Wassily Kandinsky, whose innovative work, together with that of the Cubists, shook the art world like an earthquake and ultimately paved the way for an entire generation of artists to embrace a modern understanding of art. The German-American artist Lyonel Feininger also contributes six of his most recent works to the major exhibition, including his “Old American Locomotive” from 1910. As is so typical of his entire body of work, however, Feininger could not be assigned to any group or movement at that time. Although he drew inspiration from modern art movements—especially early in his career—he remained committed to his own artistic pursuits throughout his life, rather than subordinating himself to a program.

Just a few years earlier, Lyonel Feininger—who had worked primarily as a caricaturist and draftsman until then—began to explore painting. It was a path fraught with challenges and uncertainties, one that demanded new approaches not only technically but also intellectually. Feininger himself repeatedly struggled with his progress and wavered between enthusiasm and despair, as his letters from this period reveal. On August 11, 1909, for example, he wrote confidently: “… A future is gradually opening up for me; I will not have lived in vain...” and just four days later, full of disillusionment: “…There are times when I imagine myself to be a real daredevil—and then suddenly I search in vain for a single work that might stand the test of time...”
(Lyonel Feininger, quoted in: Hans Hess, Lyonel Feininger, Stuttgart 1959, p. 47) In 1909, despite all his initial uncertainties, Feininger became a member of the Berlin Secession; he exhibited a painting there in 1910 and, just one year later, presented two of his works in the exhibition. Taking part in the Salon des Indépendants was another important step toward his success. As is well known from numerous artist biographies of the turn of the century, Feininger, too, initially encountered mixed reactions, rejection, and a lack of understanding. However, at this first major public appearance in Paris, Feininger is said to have received prominent, positive acclaim, as the American writer Charlotte Teller recalled Henri Matisse’s reaction to Lyonel Feininger’s 1909 painting “Green Bridge”: “Matisse had come in to hang one of his paintings in the room next door. For a long time, he stood motionless in front of Feininger’s canvas. Then he turned around and took his painting with him. Taken aside by his astonished followers, he explained that he had to rework his painting before it could stand the comparison with Feininger’s. And so he did.” (Charlotte Teller, Feininger-Fantasist, in: The International Studio, LXIII, Nov. 1917, No. 249, p. XXVI).

Feininger’s works from this early creative period between 1908 and 1912/13 are particularly characterized by a figurative imagery that, despite its realistic depictions, is imbued with a distinct sense of otherworldliness and fantasy. Painted mostly in vibrant colors and featuring the elongated forms typical of Feininger, his paintings are filled with shadowy, bizarre figures of all kinds whose actions remain inscrutable—figures whose colorful antics the viewer must decipher. Strong, at times discordant color contrasts remove his scenes from reality, though they remain anchored in the real world through their often urban settings. His figurative compositions almost seem to play out in a parallel realm, unfolding in the shadow of reality and revealing themselves only to attentive observers. It is a time of self-discovery and, at the same time, clearly the dawn of Modernism, unfolding in Feininger’s work of these years.

Between Fascination with Technology and Surreal Fantasy: Lyonel Feininger’s “Old American Locomotive”
Lyonel Feininger’s 1910 work “Old American Locomotive” undoubtedly belongs to this early creative phase. Set against a bright yellow sky and lush green grass, he placed an American eight-wheeler locomotive with a funnel-shaped chimney, a conical firebox, and a four-axle tender at the center of the composition. The two U.S. flags at the front of the train refer, on the one hand, to the locomotive’s origin, but also, of course, to the US-born artist's biography. When he was a child in the 1870s and 1880s, he discovered his fascination for these imposing, billowing means of transportation at Grand Central Station in New York—a fascination he would later recall as “half terrifying and wholly fascinating” (Lyonel Feininger, 1944, quoted from: Moeller Fine Art, Lyonel Feininger’s Locomotives and Trains, online: www.moellerfineart.com—accessed October 15, 2026).

Although the historic locomotive is not traveling at full speed, the thick smoke coming from the chimney and the hint of a train station in the background still suggest that the journey might begin soon or may have just ended—but in any case, the locomotive—despite its somewhat quaint appearance—is still very much alive. Next to the cab, a mechanic can be seen; in front of him stands a small figure dressed entirely in red—possibly a child—holding a hoop, as well as a striking gentleman dressed in bright green, wearing a top hat and carrying a long staff over his shoulder, who can likely also be identified as one of the track or train workers. In the background, beneath the American flag, a fourth, highly stylized figure in white can be faintly discerned; dressed in a top hat and suit—so typical of Feininger—this figure does not quite fit the scene of the railroad workers and seems to observe it from a distance.

A comparison with the painting “The Locomotive with the Large Wheel,” created in the same year—in which all figures can be clearly identified as workers—shows quite clearly that there is more to “Old American Locomotive” than a mere depiction of the railway workers’ daily tasks. Above all, the white gentleman in the background, along with the childlike figure in red in the foreground, creates moments of dissonance that cast the hustle and bustle of the train station in a new light. As was typical for the time, Feininger also used bright, vivid colors, thereby giving the old locomotive an almost unnaturally modern, colorful appearance. It almost seems as though the increasingly self-confident painter is deliberately creating unexpected dissonances here—both in the composition and in his choice of colors—causing the scene, which initially appears realistic, to threaten to vanish into unreal and fantastical realms. Although the figures do not actually interact and move in different directions, they are still connected by the locomotive within a shared narrative and, in conjunction with Feininger’s endeavor to visualize movement, become the central artistic impulse from which the aspiring painter shaped his unmistakable, fascinating visual language—one that continues to tempt us to speculate about the true nature of his half-real, half-fantastical worlds. [AR]