Mid-Ocean 1937

Lyonel Feininger painted this 49 x 73 cm ‘Mid-Ocean’ with oil on canvas. It feels like he's got this Cubist thing going on, chopping up the scene into these geometric shards. Look how the sails become these amber and beige-colored triangles, and the ocean's a series of dark teal stripes. It's like he's not just showing us a boat but breaking down how we even see a boat. I find myself staring at that strip of vibrant green between the dark, angular waves and the ship. It's unexpected, right? A slash of almost artificial color. It adds an unreal, dreamlike quality. The texture is smooth, almost flattened, which makes those sharp lines and angles even more prominent. Feininger's work reminds me a bit of Marsden Hartley, with that same angular, almost architectural approach to landscape. It's like he's building a world, piece by piece.