The work of Lyonel Feininger

Surfing the Internet this morning, I happened to come across a new book of art by the late painter/cartoonist Lyonel Feininger. This book is a collection of his comic strip art, to be published by Fantagraphics Books.

Feininger had a fairly extensive career as a painter. He was a modern artist with expressionist and impressionist leanings - you can see a little bit of Picasso and even Kadinsky in some of his work.

Here's an overview of some of his paintings. I quite like some of his sketches of sailboats, which is an obvious tribute to J.M.W. Turner.

But Feininger also had a short albeit influential career as a cartoonist. He created two comic strips, The Kin-der-Kids and Wee Willie Winkie's World. Both strips were beautifully drawn and well-written, and are still highly regarded today. The former strip ran from April 29-November 18, 1906, and the latter from August 19, 1906-February 17, 1907, both published in the Chicago Sunday Tribune.

If you want to learn some more about Feininger, his biography can be found here, and his Wikipedia entry is here.