Hanseatic Ships (Hansaschiffe) 1919

Lyonel Feininger made this woodcut, Hanseatic Ships, in Germany, probably around 1918. The image shows ships from the Hanseatic League, a powerful medieval trading network in Northern Europe. The image creates meaning through visual codes linked to Expressionism and the fractured forms of Cubism, styles which were then challenging traditional artistic norms. By referencing the Hanseatic League, Feininger evokes a time of German commercial power. This image was made after the start of World War I, when there was an increase in German nationalism, and nostalgia for the medieval period. Feininger taught at the Bauhaus, an important German art school, and this woodcut exemplifies the school’s mission to unite art and craft. To understand this work better, one could research the history of the Bauhaus, and the rise of Expressionism in Germany. This print reminds us that art is always embedded in specific social and institutional contexts.