Lyonel Feininger (1871–1956)
Strasse in Treptow an der Rega (Street in Treptow on the Rega), 1931
Watercolor and ink on paper
Private collection
Strasse in Treptow an der Rega (Street in Treptow on the Rega), 1926, is a pristine watercolor by Lyonel Feininger (1871–1956). The artist gave this work to his daughter, Marianne, and her husband, Moritz Noack, as a wedding gift.
Feininger first visited the small town of Treptow (now Trzebiatów), located close to the Baltic Sea on the Rega River, in June 1924. He had to change trains there on his way to Deep (now Mrzeżyno), where he spent every summer from 1924 to 1935. “Treptow seems to be a very beautiful old town, with an enormous church towering over very low single-story houses,” he wrote to his wife, Julia, of his first impression. With each passing summer, Feininger’s interest in Treptow grew. Many sights caught his attention: the Grützturm (Grütz Tower), the town hall, the Church of Our Lady, and the sightlines of its streets. In 1925, he wrote to Julia:
“The other day Treptow was very full of new discoveries for me—the town gains attraction with closer acquaintance. She is dead as a doornail; but out of the wretched deterioration one is initially confronted with are gradually emerging traces of peculiar fantasies, and a unique peaceful beauty of place overcomes me, something that one becomes fond of.”
