Street in Paris (Straße in Paris), also titled by the artist High Houses in Paris (Hohe Häuser, Paris) and Houses in Paris (Häuser in Paris)
Maker
Lyonel Feininger
(American, active in Germany, France, and U.S.A., 1871 - 1956)
Date1918
MediumWoodcut
DimensionsImage: 21 7/16 x 16 3/16 in. (54.5 x 41.1 cm)
Sheet: 27-7/16 x 19-1/2 in. (69.7 x 49.5 cm)
Sheet: 27-7/16 x 19-1/2 in. (69.7 x 49.5 cm)
Credit LineGift of Mr. and Mrs. Eugene Davidson
Object number1974.50
Object TypePrints
On View
Not on viewLyonel Feininger, born in New York to an immigrant German family, moved to Germany at age 16 to study music but soon turned to art. Street in Paris reveals his experiments with graphic media (which were to become his specialty at the Bauhaus) and with new styles, in this case Cubism. Despite his contemporary artistic vocabulary, many of Feininger's pictures—his favorite subjects included medieval churches, old houses, and cobblestone streets—suggest a quaint, old world country of tiny, toylike villages. This conception of Germany was that of an immigrant, raised on romantic images of a distant, unchanging homeland.