T. Lux Feininger

The Nigger of the "Narcissus"

The Nigger of the "Narcissus"

The Nigger of the

Repro: SC

1933, in Paris, Montparnasse
Oil on canvas
19 ⁵⁄₈ × 28 ³⁄₄ inches(50 × 73 cm)
Inscr. lower right: Th. LUX

TLF: "The Nigger of the 'Narcissus'", 1933 [101]; "The Nigger of the 'Narcissus'", 1933 Paris [102, Nr. 59]

Kulturstiftung Sachsen-Anhalt, Kunstmuseum Moritzburg Halle (Saale), Inv. Nr. MOI02397
Provenance: 1934-1935 commission to Galérie Jeanne Bucher, Paris; after 1938 gift to Lyonel and Julia Feininger, New York, "in their life-time, this painting hung in their apartment; after my father's death, my mother returned the picture to me." [102]; 1956 returned to the artist; 1967 on loan to Dr. and Mrs. D. Rush, Cambridge, MA, returned; 1998 gift to the Kunstmuseum Moritzburg
TLF: "I have read [Joseph Conrad's novel] “The Nigger of the Narcissus” many times, the first time still in Dessau ... It attracted me greatly from the first ...; the central figure had an appeal equally strong and vague; I used to ponder fruitlessly over the question “whom the author sided with” in the contest between James Wait and the captain..." [105]

"I see my black sailor as a paradigm of the artist, who is alone in a world that is not he; walking in the shadow of something he has not made; and who is seeking a reflection of himself, to ask it who he is." [105]

"My second picture in Paris!" [105]

[TLF quotes the original title of Joseph Conrad's novel published in London in 1898. In a new translation by Mare Verlag Hamburg, 2020, the editor Mirko Bonné chooses the title "Der Niemand von der "Narcissus". Canadian author Esi Edugyan writes in her essay 'Serpent's Tail': "I do not at all care for Joseph Conrad's title, 'The Nigger of the Narcissus', but I could not imagine the novel being called otherwise. It bears witness to the ugliness of a time and mindset in which such epithets were an accepted neutral thing." Quoted from The Art Newspaper #341, January 2022, p. 46.]

[In winter 1933 the painting hung framed in the artist's Paris apartment; see photograph "Portrait in Paris...", 1933]
Themes: Ships-Sails, Harbor & Sailors

Bookmark Forget

Exhibitions

100 Jahre Bauhaus - T. Lux Feininger 1910-2011. 2019 Berlin

Welten-Segler - T. Lux Feininger zum 100. Geburtstag, Werke 1929-1942. 2010 Kiel - Kiel, Kunsthalle zu Kiel: 5. Juni - 29. August 2010
- Paderborn, Städtische Galerie am Abdinghof: 20. Februar - 1. Mai 2011
- Quedlinburg, Lyonel-Feininger Galerie: 15. Mai - 28. August 2011
- Hannover, Stiftung Ahlers Pro Arte/Stiftung Kestner Pro Arte: 29. October 2011 - 22. Januar 2012

Feininger - Vater und Söhne. 2001 Karlsruhe, Nr. 44

T. Lux Feininger: Von Dessau nach Amerika - Der Weg eines Bauhäuslers. 1998 Hamburg-Altona, Nr. 17.

T. Lux Feininger: Von Dessau nach Amerika - Der Weg eines Bauhäuslers. 1998 Halle (Saale), Nr. 17

Americans 1943 - Realists and Magic Realists. 1943 New York, Nr. 178

Theodore Lux - Oilpaintings and Watercolors. 1938 Boston, MA, Nr. 10.

Theodor Lux - Einzelausstellung. 1935 Hamburg, [402]

Literature

Becoming Feininger Gloria Köpnick, Ulrich Luckhardt, Wolfgang Büche, LIna Aßmann 2021 Quedlinburg, S./p. 160, Abb./ill.

Der Niemand von der "Narcissus". Joseph Conrad 2020 Hamburg, Titel / title

Zwei Welten - Mein Künstlerleben zwischen Bauhaus und Amerika. T. Lux Feininger 2011 Halle (Saale), S./p. 332. Abb./ill.

Welten-Segler - T. Lux Feininger zum 100. Geburtstag, Werke 1929-1942. Ulrich Luckhardt [Hg./ed.], Peter Thurmann [Hg./ed.], Wolfgang Büche, Dagmar Lott-Reschke 2010 Köln, S./p. 87, 120, 139. Abb./ill., Luckhardt 61

Feininger - Eine Künstlerfamilie. Ursula Merkel [Hg./ed.], Wolfgang Büche, T. Lux Feininger, u.a./et al 2001 Karlsruhe, S./p. 85, 161, Abb./ill.

Schatztruhe und konstruierte Schiffe. T. Lux Feininger 2000 Hamburg, S./p. 87, Abb./ill.

Ein Paradies in der realen Welt. Klaus Hammer 1998 Berlin

Von Schiffen, Alpträumen und Afrika. Gisela Schütte 1998 Hamburg, Abb./ill.

T. Lux Feininger - Von Dessau nach Amerika. Wolfgang Büche 1998 Halle, Abb./ill.

Werke von T. Lux Feininger. herr 1998 Hamburg, Abb./ill.

T. Lux Feininger: Von Dessau nach Amerika - Der Weg eines Bauhäuslers. Wolfgang Büche [Hg./ed.], T. Lux Feininger, Ulrich Luckhardt, Emilie Norris 1998 Halle, S./p. 45, 139, Abb./ill.

Vom Bauhaus nach Amerika. 1998, S./p. 6/7. Abb./ill.

Querlage 2, Randlage. T. Lux Feininger 1987 Plön in Holstein, Postkarte/Postcard

Randlage 22/23. 1983 Berlin, Postkarte/Postcard

American Realists and Magic Realists. Alfred H. Barr [Hg./ed.], Dorothy C. Miller [Hg./ed.], Lincoln Kirstein 1943 New York, S./p. 66

Lagerbuch Ölgemälde, Aquarelle, Zeichnungen. 1935 Berlin, S./p. 204, Nr. 449

Piesekoll, der Horizontverschlinger. Hans Leip 1934 Braunschweig, S./p. 59. Abb./ill. [Im Hafen von Kota-Hul]

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