Photo: Hugo Erfurth / Public domain (source: Wikimedia Commons)
My Take
Lyonel Feininger fascinates me because his life cut straight across two worlds. Born in New York in 1871, he sailed to Europe at sixteen and never really stopped moving between cartooning, painting, and photography. I love that he started out drawing comic strips and caricatures before becoming a leading voice in Expressionism. That grounding in line work shows in his paintings, with their crystalline, almost architectural geometry. To me he is proof that there is no shame in popular illustration as a starting point. He pulled the discipline of the comic page into fine art, and the result still feels strikingly modern when I look at it today.
Overview
Lyonel Charles Adrian Feininger (; July 17, 1871 – January 13, 1956) was a German-American painter, and a leading exponent of Expressionism. He also worked as a caricaturist and comic strip artist. He was born and grew up in New York City. In 1887 he traveled to Europe and studied art in Hamburg, Berlin and Paris. He started his career as a cartoonist in 1894 and met with much success in this area.
Summary adapted from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
1. Profile
- Name (English)
- Lyonel Feininger
- Name (Japanese)
- リオネル・ファイニンガー
- Reading
- りおねる・ふぁいにんがー
- Born
- July 17, 1871 – January 13, 1956
- Zodiac / Chinese zodiac
- Cancer / Goat
- Origin
- New York City, New York, United States
- Blood type
- Private
- Height
- Private
- Agency
- Private
- Occupation
- painter / artist / photographer / illustrator / comics artist
2. Background
- Elementary school
- Private
- Junior high
- Private
- High school
- Private
- University
- Private
3. Relationships
- Spouse
- Private
- Children
- Private
- Parents
- Private
- Siblings
- Private
4. Personality
Motto
Private
6. Links
Painter — see all → · Artist — see all → · More people from United States →
7. About this entry
Tags
- Last updated
- 2026-06-02
Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public items are marked "Private / Unknown". English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.