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Klee

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2011

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Klee
A

STUDY OF

HIS LIFE

GUALTIERI

DI

AND WORK

BY

SAN LAZZARO

TRANSLATED FROM THE ITALIAN BY

STUART HOOD

Frederick A. Praeger, Publishers

NEW YORK

TRANSLATED FROM THE ITALIAN BY STUART HOOD

FERNAND HAZAN,

(g)

FIRST PUBLISHED IN THE

FREDERICK
I

PARIS, 1957

UNITEDSTATES OFAMERICA

IN 1957

BY

PRAEGER, INC., PUBLISHERS

FOURTH AVENUE, NEW YORK 3, N.Y.
SECOND PRINTING, 964
A.

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOG CARD NUMBER

57-1

232

FIRST PUBLISHED IN THIS FORMAT, 964

GREAT BRITAIN BY JARROLD & SONS LTD, NORWICH
REPRODUCTION RIGHTS RESERVED BY FELIX KLEE, BERNE
I

PRINTED

IN

Contents
The

Arab

Little

page

Three years of Darkness

The

Artist

Paris

page

Alone

page 33
page 46

faire*

and Cubisni

page 67

page 79

Africa

War page

87

page

'Creative Confession*

The Bauhaus

page

116

page

K, K, Gesellschaft

lOS

page 127

Line, Tonality, Colour

149

Crystalline Painting

page

Return to Berne

page 183

I6S

Demons page

Angels, Saints and

The Last Days

page 225

page 235

Saint

page 243

Biographical Notes

Catalogue of Principal Works

Klee's Writings

197

page 209

'The Heart of Creation*

An Unorthodox

14

page 22

Mastering Life

'Bonne a tout

page 257

page 281

page 282

Books Illustrated by Klee

Principal Exhibitions

Bibliography

page 282

page 284

Index of Works Reproduced

Index of Persons

page 287

page 303

WE ARE GRATEFUL TO
M.

AND THE

FELIX ICLEE

KLEE FOUNDATION, BERNE

FOR INVALUABLE ASSISTANCE

IN

THE PREPARATION OF THIS BOOK

OUR THANKS ARE ALSO DUE TO THOSE WHO

PERMITTED US TO PHOTOGRAPH

THE

WORKS OF

KLEE IN THEIR COLLECTIONS

AND PARTICULARLY TO
M.

MLLE ANGELA
MR.

AND MME BURGl OF

AND
F.

C.

M. SIEGFRIED

BERNE.

ROSENGART OF LUCERNE,

SCHANG AND

MR.

BERGGRUEN

SELF-PORTRAIT DRAWING FOR A

The

Little

Arab

The son of a Swiss mother and a German father, Paul Klee was a wonderful
epitome of the physical and psychoboth his
indeed
almost impossible to be more German and yet more Swiss than he. But
some distant trace of the Mediterranean had left its mark on him both
logical

parents.

characteristics
It

would be

of

difficult

WOODCUT.

1909.

physically and spiritually. In photographs taken when he was a child, he

has the secretive, sensual face of a little
Arab. As an adult he was always to feel
strongly the lure of the Mediterranean.
The thin line of the beard running
straight from the corners of his mouth,
his thick lips and dark, penetrating eyes
are characteristically African. And because of this remote influence which
has never been accurately defined by

LANDSCAPEfrom

sketchbook,

biographers
family on his
his
mother's side is suspected of North
African connections
he was himself to
become African. From Africa came the
mystery, the incantation which seemed
to be the source of his last works.
His biographers tell us that his
mother, Ida Maria Klee, came from
Basle, which is at oncethe most bitingly
witty and the most sensual of Swiss
cities. His father, Hans, on the other
his

c.

1898. Klee-Stiftung, berne.

hand, was German.

A common

passion

for music had brought the couple to-

gether that and Hans Klee's almost

legendary powers of sarcasm, which a
native of Basle could not but consider
with a certain benevolent tolerance.
Paul was born on 18th December
1879, at Munchenbuchsee near Berne
where his father he had had to give
up singing taught as" a schoolmaster.
Tempered by the understanding of the

ARCO SOUTH

boy's

mother, the sarcasm

Klee became

humour

in

TYROL.

of

1896. Felix Klee Collection, Berne.

Hans

The

his son.

musical aspirations of the parents reappeared undiminished in Paul who

was even tempted at one stage to give
up the violin, to which he owed his first
childish successes, and by devoting
himself to singing, realize the most

tenacious of his parents' desires.

There was another

riage

Mathilde,

child of the

whose

marby

portrait

Klee is well known (Cat. 3). But she

had no influence on her brother al-

though

she was devoted

upbringing and

Heredity,

personality

made

to

him.

his

own

an artist of Klee.

In

need to escape was merely

an extension of his personality and not
the expression of a revolt against the
milieu in which he lived, as it was in
the case of many other artists.
In a 'sous-verre' by his son, Hans
his case his

VIRGIN IN A TREE.

-1903.

Klee has the majestic vanity of a Grand

bitions as an artist and

But in the photographs of the same period he displays

the simple cordiality of an emaciated,
bearded patriarch. Perhaps he was a bit
of both. But few patriarchs have had
the good fortune to bring into the
world a more affectionate and devoted
son. Even more than a father Hans Klee
must have been a friend to his son. It
was to his father that the young art
student later confided his first am-

expressed the sincere ambitions

awakened within him by the masterpieces of the Munich Pinakothek.

Elector (page

6).

in

enthusiastic

letters

This sarcastic
first

playfellow

man

then, was his son's

the

first

admirer of

the drawings which the child, encouraged by his maternal grandmother,

produced with his left hand. Not that
he

was

really

know from
and

left-handed

that

his son, Felix Klee.

painted

with the

left

we
He drew

hand but

STILL LIFE FLOWERPOTS

AND

VASES.

1908. Klee-Stiftung, Berne.

PORTRAIT OF MY FATHER.

1906. Felix Klee Collection, berne.

wrote with the right. He could also

write and draw with both hands simultaneously, working either from right
to left or from left to right. For heavy

be able to do without them. They were

to occupy the same place in his work
as Picasso at a certain period gave to
perhaps an even more imthe owl

work he
The

left

hand.

portant place, for to Picasso the owl

small boy's other friends

were

symbol of antiquity, whereas

the cat is Klee's most familiar demon,
the genius of his hearth. At school
his gay, ironic character won him the
liking of his companions
particularly
of those who were most dissatisfied

preferred to use the

the cats which held absolute sway over

the district of Berne to which his
family had moved shortly after he was
born. And to the cats, too, Klee was to
remain loyal all his life. He would never

merely

is

PORTRAIT OF

LILY KLEE. 1906.

Felix Klee Collection, Berne.

with its very broad education, which

took no account of individual leanings.
Klee was one of the most pugnacious of
the boys, yet he never showed any desire to assume the authority of leader.
His notebooks were full of drawings
with which he was continually busy as
he followed the lesson with one ear.
But in the Greek class he was more
attentive, for

poet

in

Greek appealed to the

him.

The Klee archives contain twelve

notebooks from these years, full of
drawings which cannot be described
as masterpieces but which have nevertheless sensibility. The most moving
are those from his early childhood
on themes presumably suggested by
the Christ child, a
his grandmother

guardian

angel,

the

Christmas-tree.

The Christmas-tree was to revert to

being a simple pine and become one of

Htp?

his most constant symbols

the leafy
symbol which, after his journey to
Tunisia, he was to set against the full
round moon of the South. The boy was

particularly

which

fond

men and

processions

of

animals

in

alternated.

Certain spidery personages which were

in the illustrations to
Candide are already there. There is a

to reappear later
certain

humour, too,

in

these early

drawings but it disappears in later

works which reveal his growing preoccupation with technicalities. Space
and light are the two problems which
beset the young artist. But he is still
moved by love and his youthful landscapes from the years 1895 and 1896
show sensibility and sometimes technical

ability

worthy of

mature

artist.

One remembers

with particular emotion an envelope which at the age of

ten he painted and cut out as if it were

BERNE INDUSTRIAL QUARTER WITH CATHEDRAL TOWER.

1909. Klee-Stiftung. Berne.

!N

a real letter

from

THE QUARRY.

a fount of type.

already a miniature Klee.

Many

It

1913. Klee-Stiftung, Berne.

is

years

he was to return to the same

theme in the famous drawing The Spirit
later

of the Letter. He was very fond of

flowers and plants, of birds and butter-

and of fish with human features,

such as he was to come across later in
the Aquarium at Naples. Like a true
botanist, he knew both the German
and Latin names of the flowers. He

flies

loved to

draw and

paint

cyclamens,

gentians and Alpine roses. Unlike his

drawings of birds, which are copied

from books, those of flowers are very

delicate

not

scholastic exercises but

studies by an
with a precise feeling for colour.
When he left school after taking
his final examination, he inserted an
advertisement in the student magazine,

precious

preliminary

artist

to which he had been a faithful contributor, offering "a large number of

Mary

Magdalenes, of
taken from the
notebooks of a sixth-form pupil".

Madonnas,

girls,

of

brigands,

etc.,

He drew whatever came

head

Madonnas,

Mary

into

his

Magdelenes

fj">j>

BIRDCAGE

ON THE COLUMN.

and brigands. But other things too of

which his mother one day disapproved.
Like many boys of his age, Paul Klee
was greatly taken up with the problem
of sex. He himself records in his Diary
that he was attracted by the beauty of
small girls at a precocious age and that
he had even wanted to be a girl so as to
be able, like them, to wear lace-frilled
10

lo

1908. Klee-Stiftung. Berne.

knickers. His

seven

was

first

love

a little

at

Italian

the age of
girl.

Some

years later he was strongly attracted by

in whose house he
the autumn of 1887 and 1888.
Finally a drawing of a naked woman
with her belly full of children fell into
his mother's hands. The poor woman,

a cousin

stayed

from Basle

in

whose ignorance

of sex education was

'^
..

r
\
"^:/

\
^i%

.^k-'

fi
HANNAH.

1910. F. C. Schong Collection,

New

York.

complete, was terrified and reacted

with such severity as to produce inevitably the opposite effect from that
intended. From that moment only
whatever was prohibited could attract
the adolescent boy. His studies left him
indifferent, apart from Greek poetry

and music which, along with drawing,

were

his

great

passions.

He wrote

erotic poetry and erotic stories which

he immediately destroyed. But the

study of landscape and life in the open
air gave his tormented spirit a certain
peace and allowed

him

we

have
and
produce works which even today are
worthy of our admiration.
It was natural, therefore, that having
passed his examinations with no great
distinction, he should decide to study
painting seriously. In 1898 he left for
Munich. He was nineteen years old.
said

to express himself

YOUNG WOMAN
12

IN

as

artistically

A DECK CHAIR.

1909. Klee-Stiftung. Berne.

iiu^'/'^ C:^^7.v^#

HUMAN WEAKNESS.

1913. Klee-Stiftung, Berne.

13

IMA'^'.-^-'-jJjp'^y^ff

Ijil

I'O

MUNICH THE

Three Years of Darkness

STATION.

1911

provincial.

The young man examined

himself and realized that he loved none

Of the three

years which

Paul

Klee

spent in Munich studying painting, first

at Professor Knirr's and later at the

we have only
together with
some rather insignificant works. Klee
was not to find himself until he
had calmed both his senses and his
imagination, thanks to the beneficial

Academy under
the

artist's

influence of

Stuck,

account

Lily, a

young

eight years later was to

pianist

become

who
his

wife.

there was no lack of

maternal
girls
in
Munich, but his first attempts were
disappointing, precisely because of the
motherly attitude which they felt they
must assume towards this inexpert
Evidently

accommodating,

14

of them

he was simply attracted by the

mystery of the female species. None of
them succeeded in filling the void in his
;

heart.

Yet these years had

fluence on his future.
that he found

It

a decisive

was

at

in-

Munich

confidence in himself,
every inclination with a
subtlety, with a pedantry even, worthy
of a psychiatrist. Music, literature and
painting attracted him equally. But he
did not leave it to chance to decide
whether he was to be a musician,
writer or painter. He chose painting
because he had a definite feeling that
painting, more than music or poetry,
would allow the full expression of his
personality. "I shall make painting take
analysing

wrote to his parents

The rigorous self-discipline

steps forward", he
in

Berne.

which

he

imposed

on

himself

occasionally amusing results, as

had

when

he entered in a notebook the names of

all the girls he had not yet possessed.
The last name in the list is that of Lily,
beside which he wrote the one word:

"Wait".
While he waited for

woman

Lily,

who was

to

poor girl
enabled him to satisfy the most urgent
promptings of his sexual curiosity. She
was far from being his ideal woman
be the

in

his

life,

an imaginary creature to

given the
at least a

name

of Eveline

whom

he had

but she was

being of the opposite sex.

One

evening he got drunk. He thought of

Lily and felt guilty, but he justified himself by arguing that he did not yet belong to any one woman. His instincts
were polygamous, yet even in his
moments of depression they were
due chiefly to sexual frustration he
was sure of one thing: that painting
was his real profession. It was a conviction which grew in him. In the
autumn of 1900 he was at last allowed

to join Professor Stuck's class at the

Academy. Although he thought he had

by now a fair mastery of draughtsmanship Klee had to admit that colour was
a

difficult

obstacle.

Kandinsky was to

And

say, for

Stuck as
he too was a

7i/r

MAKE WAY, MAKE WAY, FOR THE REVEREND COLONEL"

(CANDIDE),
15

^^

wretched academic painter

poor ally in the struggle.

pupil of this

was

He consoled

himself

in

Lily's

com-

She for her part succeeded in

inviting him to her house on Christmas
While continuing his sexual
Eve.
initiation with other girls, Klee was
more and more attracted to the young
whom he shared his
pianist with
passion for music. Music and poetry
were his great comfort. He composed
and wrote verses in honour of his
imaginary Eveline. Literature, too, atpany.

tracted

him.

Tolstoy's

Resurrection

overwhelmed him and he had no peace

until Lily too had read it; for more and
more he felt the need to gain the
approval of a

girl

whom

he already con-

sidered his fiancee. Yet from time to

SKETCH OF A STREET
16

IN

time he was tortured by jealousy and

he might be mistaken in his
choice. "It would be a pity", he wrote
in his Diary, "because Lily has a good
influence on me."
At school he was increasingly confident although Stuck did not share his
opinion and even encouraged him to
leave painting and take up sculpture.
In the spring of 1901, he felt he could
lay down aguiding principlefor his life:
"First of all, the art of living; then as
my ideal profession, poetry and philosophy, and as my real profession, plastic
art; in the last resort, for lack of income, illustrations."
He was attracted by the satirical
journals; but he realized that his ambitions went much deeper. One day he
feared

A TOWN.

1912. Klee-Stiftung, Berne.

ANATOMY OF APHRODITE.

1915. Felix Klee Collection. Berne.

17

1f/'i

ASa?

4X%

HEADS.

1913. K/ee-St/ftung. Berne.

decided to be a great portrait painter.

"It is not my task to reproduce appearances", he notes in his Diary, "for that
there is the photographic plate
want
to penetrate into the inmost meaning
of the model. want to reach the heart.
write words on the forehead and

'

my

round the

lips.

than

Many years

life."

But

faces are truer

later

he kept

his

promise and succeeded in expressing a

reality which is no longer only physical
without being merely psychological.
But he still had only a vague presentiment of that reality. Although they
were expressed with such confidence,

his
ambitions were actually more
modest. Gradually his erotic fancy
seemed to be assuaged. In his heart
there was a growing need for a "noble"
love. At Whitsun, which he was spending with Lily's parents
her father who
was a doctor had treated him for a
nervous disorder of the heart some
months previously he was able to
win a first but decisive victory over the

young
wait

From that day, Lily was

order to marry him, to
he thought
eight years

pianist.

prepared,

the

necessary
maturity.

in

to

reach

his

full

artistic

sex". The three years in Munich had

not been wasted. They would have

Klee undoubtedly had a lengthy

adolescence and a tortuous development. His three years in Munich were
dark years lit from time to time by a
ray of light. When he went home to

been so perhaps had he not met Lily,

from whom he had been able to part
for the moment without pain. "Now
have staked everything on Italy."
Italy, too,
like Lily, was to have a
beneficial effect on him. Italy was to be

Berne in the summer of 1901 and prepared to set out for Italy with his friend
Mailer, whom he had known since he
was six, and who had been with him in

his

Munich, he was cured. He could at last

think that "he had become a moral
man even from the point of view of

convalescence; after the troubled

years

in

Munich he was, for the

first

time, sure of himself

\,

A FRAGMENT OF EDEN.

fil^>ldjcchn ^i^fT^

1913.

F.

C.

Schongs

Collection.

New

York.

19

-^

"i

fi

i'

LITTLE PORT.

20

1914. Felix Klee Collection, Berne.

LITTLE VIGNETTE

FOR EGYPT.

1918. Felix Klee Collection, Berne.

21

K^

TOWER

BY THE SEA.

Mastering Life

Klee-Stiftung. Berne.

effects

duced

Women
had

apart,

and

with

no contact, Paul

them

Klee's

he

Italy

is

entirely composed of
museums. But whereas
Stendhal abandoned himself to his imlike

Stendhal's

theatres and

pulses, to his unflagging zest for things

Italian,

Klee

severely

analysed his feelings.

observed

and

To him the most

important thing in Italy was his own

reactions. This does not mean to say
that he did not allow himself to be
carried away by enthusiasm, but immediately afterwards he noted the
22

which that enthusiasm had proin his mind. Paul Klee was in-

in Paul Klee and

the flowering of his own personality
the way in which his moral and artistic
conscience developed. The sub-title of

terested principally

his

Diary could well be:

How Became
I

Paul Klee.

Munich, and

as later in

Germany and

Egypt, he

In Italy, as in

Paris, Africa,

was seeking himself. Italy gave him

the opportunity of measuring himself
against

antiquity,

of confronting the

academic art they had taught him at

Munich with Classicism, towards which

he had been steered by Burckhardt's

famous book, although he did not always agree with it. His sense of his own
unimportance did not frighten him, for
his future was always present in his

He did not hesitate to say that

he had reached the point where he
could lump together Antiquity and
Renaissance. "But cannot conceive",
mind.

adds

he

immediately,

relationship with our

'"'any

own

artistic

epoch.

And

the creation of anything outside the

framework of our age seems very suspect to me." Naturally, since he knew
nothing of French art, he could have
only the vaguest idea of his own age.
In

October

panied by

1901

then, Paul accom-

his friend,

Hermann

crossed the frontier.

In

mired the Tintorettos

in

Genoa was
in Italy.

His

his first real

Haller,

Milan, he ad-

the Brera; but

stopping-place

first port, his first sea, his

voyage in a steamer (to Leghorn,

which he found boring): all these he
saw like pictures in an exhibition. Compared to Genoa, which he described
as a "dramatic" city, Rome, the goal of
first

his

journey, suggested to his imagina-

tion the epithet "epic".

Some months

he was to tire of Rome and prefer

Naples; but his first contact, celebrated
with generous libations in an osteria,
aroused his spirits and his senses.
later

He found lodgings in the Via dell'

Archetto. With his precious Burckhardt under his arm he at once began
museums and churches. The
Chapel and the frescoes of
Pinturicchio and Raphael left the pupil
of Knirr and Franz von Stuck bewildered, as if he had been the victim
of a vigorous and unmerited assault.
But Michelangelo's Piet left him indifferent. And for the Baroque he conto

visit

Sistine

THE FLOWER AS OBJECT OF LOVE.

1915. Klee-Stiftung, Berne.

23

zoo.
24

1918. Klee-Stiftung, Berne.

ceived something approaching hatred.

On

the other hand his enthusiasm was

aroused by the Byzantine mosaics of
San Giovanni in Laterano and by certain sculptures 'in a primitive style",

whose beauty lay entirely in expression.

The emotion' awakened in him by these
sculptures was to be more fruitful than
the assault inflicted on him in the Sistine Chapel. By the time that he was
really Paul
Klee, Michelangelo and
Raphael were to be eclipsed however
by Leonardo, who was already even
unconsciously

But the
primitive arts would always be dear to
his heart. If the Laocoon annoyed him
the Belvedere Apollo fascinated him. It
if

his

ideal.

was with difficulty that he accepted

Guido Reni's Beatrice Cenci.
At the Museo Nazionale in Naples he
admired the frescoes from Pompeii
which seemed to have been "painted
and discovered" for him. In the Aquarium his enthusiasm was kindled by the
starfish,

the octopuses and the great

which he describes as "ex-

shell-fish,

pressive". "Expressive" is an adjective

which frequently recurs in his vocabulary. In

the ordinary octopuses he finds

acomic resemblance toart dealers. One

of them, in particular, seemed to look at
him as if he were a new Boecklin.
Not only did the Aquarium at
Naples, many years later, inspire some
of his most beautiful compositions, but
certain effects of light, certain sub-

marinetones, certain delicate iridescent

passages have a strict connection with
that distant revelation. Unlike Picasso,
Klee never exploited his

own

tions immediately. He allowed

mature slowly within himself

sensa-

them to
Almost
25

CATS.

Klee's

all

'personages',

anemones and
rium

at

shell-fish

like
in

1915. Klee-Stiftung, Berne.

the sea-

the Aqua-

Naples, would one day have

their individual atmosphere,

removed

almost always a gently satirical obserOne composition on which he

vation.

worked

in

Rome was

on squint Chimneys.

called Moralizing

The work

is

value-

the

enchantment of acclimatization.

there is the germ of

the picture all Klee is there already.
Speaking of another satirical composition showing a group of three young
men, he says he hopes to succeed one
day in creating not only with the mind
but beauty too. This hope was to be

We

can already at this date establish

fulfilled

from which they could not conceivably

exist. A fish in an aquarium, in a bowl
or even caught in a net, a bird in a cage,
a man shut up in a room or on a stage

all

Klee's poetry

tion of this kind,

lies in

magic limita-

what we might

that the starting-point of his

26

call

work was

less

In

but

in

the

title

with the years.

the evening he went to the opera,

CHILD.

1918. Klee-Stiftung, Berne

27

<-

UNDER A BLACK

STAR.

1918. Doetsch-Benziger Collection, Basle.

/<Y*

f'^

t^o

V'

DRAWING FOR SALOME.

to concerts and the theatre. Once, on
entering a theatre and finding himself

surrounded

by women,

he

had

the

~ia.el

Siegfried Rosengort Collection. Lucerne.

1920.

were two friends from Berne whom he

met by chance in Florence. Rome was
not Munich. The girls of easy virtue did

one of his
childhood dreams. From Munich Lil/
wrote to ask his impressions of Roman
women. Paul was not a new Stendhal

severe

and had not made the acquaintance of

a single one. The only women with
whom he passed a pleasant evening

tour

painful impression of reliving

W^

7,t^'-^> >

not like artists; they preferred cavalry

and moved in different circles.

officers

The great Duse drew from him a

critical judgment with which
Stendhal would have disagreed. But
Rjane,

who was making

of

Italy,

filled

him

triumphant
with en29

MEDITATION Self-portrait.

thusiasm

perhaps

minded him of

because

a girl with

she

re-

he did not neglect literature, passing

whom

he

from Plato to Zola, from Tolstoy to

Tacitus. Goethe, whom he discovered
in Italy and some of whose works he
read over and over again was "the only
bearable German". He was a German
such as he himself would have liked to
be. Goethe and Lily gave Klee to Germany. To the young artist, who was

used "to play games that made him

happy". But the great actress left him

with a great sadness

was

dispelled

in his

some

heart which

days

later
by
another Parisian actress one who did
not come from the legitimate stage,
la Belle Otero. She had a poor voice
but posed delightfully and was a woman
in every inch of her body. Even Clo de
Merode, whom he saw some time later,
could not make him forget her.
Music continued to excite him but

30

1919.

still

totally

ignorant of French art

shortly before leaving

Rome

he saw an

exhibition of French art and admired

some drawings by Rodin and

France,

in

spite

of

its

Forain

fascination,

PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST.

The Passadeno Art

1919.

Institute, California

rz^^

seemed

country without a future.

listless, he left
Ronneafter a last visit to the Borgia apartnnents n the Vatican
'the most beautiful thing the Renaissance gave Rome"
to see the Pinturicchio frescoes.
In Florence he now felt sure enough
of his own judgments and did not
hesitate to express them very boldly.
Thus he described Botticelli as a
better colourist than Titian. He was
not mistaken, however, in considering
Veronese superior to Titian as far as
colour was concerned. He admired the
In

April 1901, sad and

'

Raphael portraits and Cranach's Eve.

In
the Museo Nazionale he was
particularly

attracted

by

Donatello,

but the Gothic, being more "expressive", aroused a stronger emotion.

It was another man who returned to
Berne in May 1902, after seven months'

absence.

In

spite of the fringed beard

which he had allowed to grow in

honour of the men of antiquity, he was
no longer Pan among the reeds. He was
a man who wanted to 'climb stairs'
really climb. From now on he had only
one ambition to master life.

31

^
u

>

DREAM LANDSCAPE WITH CONIFERS.

The Artist Aione

1920. Private Collection, Berne.

Between

he made
So
much must be recognized, although it
is difficult to share his enthusiasm for
his early etchings, in which he unfortunately lapses into Teutonic grotesque. The engravings, and later the
'sous-verres', gave him the opportunity of grappling with the problem of
line, with which one day he would be
1902 and

1906

notable technical progress

To master

life meant above all not to

allow himself to be diverted from his
path. After his return to Berne, Klee
earned a little money by playing the
violin in the town orchestra, by giving

music and drawing lessons. Later, in

Munich, after his marriage to Lily, he
was servant, cook and nursemaid to his
own family; but both there and in
Berne he dominated life refusing to
be distracted from his own work and
following his own path to the end.
- THE TIGHTROPE WALKER.

able to express

all

his

in his art.

poetry.

Let us concede, then, that he had

discovered his style
as he claimed
although he had in fact merely dis-

1923. Klee-Stiftung, Berne.

33

how

to engrave a zinc plate or

the architectonic sense (which he had

other etchings, really

with which the
critics treated it ? Not certainly for the
reasons adduced by one critic who reproached the crack-brained artist with
producing a "mad anatomy" of things.
Although the feeling of these etchings:

learned to understand

covered

a piece of glass.

The important thing

was that he should be aware of

internal processes.

He

his

himself said that

immediate and at the same time

most distant goal was to harmonize
his

own

in Italy)

with

his

sense of poetry, which had lately

undergone profound
modifications.
From being tenderly lyrical it had be-

come
wrote

bitterly satirical. "I protest", he

in his

Diary.

Did A Virgin in a Tree (page 4 ),

which Stuck managed to get exhibited
some years later in the 'Sezession' of

DEPARTURE FOR THE VOYAGE.

34

1906, along with

merit

the

Virgin

in

severity

Tree,

Beast,

A Man

Connedian,

grovelling before the Crown,

Woman

Menacing Head (Cat. 5)

grotesque, in some of them

Men meet Each supposing the
:

and

is

still

like

Two

other to be

of Higher Rank (Cat. 2) the aim is

pleasingly satirical and not unworthy
of comparison with Gogol, on

Klee

nourished

his

own

1920. Private Collection. Berne.

whom

sense

of

JiW

FANTASTIC ARCHITECTURE WITH THE RIDER.

1918. Klee-Stiftung. Berne.

(whom

humour. The Hero with one Wing one

first works that Klee sold
for

ier

300 marks,

he knew. If in the etchings he had to

up to the problem of line, the
'sous-verres', which were produced by
etching with a needle on a piece of
glass coated with black or coloured
paints and printing it on paper gave
him training for the alchemy of the
future and forced him to respect the

of the

days

has

painter,

high

figure

for those

rhymed comment by the

and in the comment, if not in
a

the engraving itself, we find Klee's

real sense of humour, which had been
stimulated by the Wright brothers'

attempt
In

at flight.

short, Klee did not so

ticipate his

own

occasionally

synthesize

in

in

taste

the

his

much

'sous-verres'

etchings and

verres' the taste represented by

an-

very

this he did

as

'sous-

Nod-

he did

not admire),

Blake and by Beardsley,

by

whose works

face

delicate play of tones.

One example

is

the delicate Garden Scene with a

Watering Can (1905, Cat. 7), which has
a surprising French charm.
35

IJ

o
c.

37

MIRACULOUS LANDING.

During these years, too, he acquired

The theme of
father and son suggested a whole series
of works A Father with his Son, A Father
seen by his Son, A Father blessing his Son.
But they were not as successful as he
wished and he destroyed them. "Only
his taste for variations.

the

titles

remain",

philosophically

in his

he

summed up

Diary.

He was

not aware, meanwhile, of the

disorderly way in which
he was

1920. Klee-Stiftung, berne.

other times he unhesitatingly stated

in forcing nature
to conform to his style. "Everything
becomes Klee", he said. Everything
was Klee already but only in inten-

that he had succeeded

Ibsen before seeing Hebbel

Amiet

before van Gogh."

Although sometimes he had to admit

work was not going well, at

that his

38

see from his description of

work in progress: "Water on the

water waves on the waves a boat
on the boat, a woman on the woman,
a

man

1904.

invented

clear

up

in

summer

the

of

precarious construction."

He made some

acquiring a culture. "I heard 'Bajazzo'

before 'Hansel and Gretel', saw Sudermann's plays before seeing Ibsen and

we

tion, as

trips to

Munich to

his position vis-a-vis

the mili-

tary authorities, to see Lily again and

to "kiss youth on the

is

to

mouth before

too late". Then he made a

Berlin

attempted

where the
in

vain

Heilbut
arrange an

critic

to

it

flying visit

V?

\^k

^m

::>^

sf

^v
:^

1.^^.

DRAWING FOR

"PLANTS, EARTH

AND KINGDOM OF THE

AIR". 1920. Klee-Stiftung.

39

drawings and have

of his

exhibition

some published

in

various periodicals.

Occasionally Lily visited him in Berne;

clearly he no longer nourished a morbid

passion

for

her.

He had

had

glimpse of the abyss in the bitter years

of adolescence and had no desire to relive the burden of those distant days.
But without her affection, which he no
longer doubted, he would

not have
been so sure of himself. Unfortunately
the girl's father was not very happy
about their relationship and the two
young people had frequently to meet in
secret.

Music, literature and new friends,

comforted the young man's solitude.
He tended to let friends give him ad-

but if he saw that their paths

diverged did not hesitate to break with
them, however great the help he had

vice,

them in the past.

May 1905 he was able

received from

On
along

31st

with

Bloesch

his

friends

Moilliet

and

one of his
short, mere

at last to realize

most cherished dreams: a

fortnight's trip to Paris.

The journey

was not decisive. Klee was not yet

mature enough to take stock of modern
art with that resolution he had

when
It

was

faced with classical art

shown

in

Italy.

to a country which,
too much of a German, he

his first visit

being still
could not but regard with an unconscious element of distrust.

He

visited

the Louvre, the Luxembourg Museum

which was at that time the gallery of

modern

and the main sights of the

evening he went to
theatres, to bals musettes and to cafes.
La Comdie-Frangaise, l'Opra-Comique, le Bai Bullier, la Taverne de

town.

art,

In

the

40

LANDSCAPE WITH YELLOW

BIRDS. 1923.

R.

Doetsch-Benziger Collection, Basle.

41

l'Olympia

all

these

he visited.

His

him recognize

his

master.

The truth

is

greatest jo/ was to rediscover Leonar-

that Klee was too great an admirer of

do and to admire the fine Corots in the

Louvre. He seemed less enthusiastic
about the moderns, with the exception of Renoir. In Puvis de Chavannes

German mind to find fruitful

models in France. "I have nothing to
learn from the French", he writes in
his Diary. It was only some years later
that he realized that the problems
which were besetting him were precisely those which the French had so
daringly attempted to resolve.
Meanwhile he had completed his study
of anatomy by taking classes with
Professor Strasser in Berne. There he
no longer found the work boring, as
he had in Munich, where only the consoling thought that the knowledge he
was acquiring might some day prove
useful had encouraged him to continue.
He read a good deal. He copied out
the whole of the De Profundis by Wilde,
from whom he had learned that art is a

he recognized the artist who had been

the first to influence Hodler. He was
pleased to discover Spanish influences

of

Velasquez and of the Goya he

in Manet. Monet he found unequal because impulsive, but rich in
loved

talent.
In

Sisley

Carrire,

refined,

who was

Pissarro

dry.

closer to his

own

problems, he saw a good example of

how to deal with tonality.
Such coolness on his part is disappointing. It hardly seems possible
that he did not hear people speak of

Cezanne,
until

whom

some years

he was not to discover

later in Munich and in

DANCE OF THE
42

the

VEIL. 1920. Ibach Collection, Barmen.

f^

^imSV

FIORDILIGI. 1923. Angela Rosengart

Collection, Lucerne.

43

space and symbolism. Reading was like

but he kept his finger on

a fever;
his

"Yesterday

pulse.

would have

refused to read The Portrait of Dorian

Gray, which today amuses me and the
day before yesterday would have

me." Voltaire's Candide,

intoxicated

which he

felt

some years

the urge to illustrate

later, affected

him deeply.

He

Naturally he did not miss concerts.

was present

at

one concert by Casals

(whom he considered the

best musician
had ever lived) which was something of a fiasco, because Casals found

who

the players below any acceptable

standard and refused to continue. These
two passions music and literature

reinforced Klee's Germanicsentiments.

As

his feelings

became more

clearly

defined and insisted on finding artistic

'1,'

live in a large

grew

town. "For

in

Lily,

him to
too,

it

be a good idea to leave her parents'

shall work together
^for
home.
how long don't know."
At last, at the beginning of September 906, he overcame the resistance of
the girl's father and was able to

will

We
I

announce his engagement officially.

The marriage took place at Berne on
the 16th and some weeks later, in
October, he was already living in a
pension in Munich with his wife. Soon
after they moved to a small secondon to a courtyard.
gave piano lessons and Klee, who
had so long sighed for his solitude to
come to an end, caught himself writing

floor flat looking

Lily

in

his

five

,1

Diary: "I live alone

in

thousand painters."

'

',/:-'-:;-:--; ---ir-.

THE OPERA-BOUFFE.
44

'

expression, the desire

1925. Mrs. Charlotte Purcell's Collection. Chicago.

a city of

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^HRb^?~

^^i^^^^^^^^^^i

^H

^^^^^^^^^HV^i^ ^^'
'

^^^P^^H'^'-i^lH^v^^
J! ^
3B,.^..3ip
^^p^^^ w?>?S-%^Hf
.

WtKmit-'^Mmtttltttm

SENECIO.

1922.

Kunstmuseum,

1
I

Basle.

45

Bonne

tout (aire

/v^tV

"In the

little flat

artist's son,

in

Munich," so the

Klee

Felix

tells

us,

"my

mother practised her profession every

day. She gave music lessons from
morning to night and her husband, still
the unknown artist, had to see to the
chores and look after the baby. The
little kitchen was his room; there his
pictures and drawings saw the light,
there glass was etched, photographs
developed, nappies washed and socks

.'IT

that

same kitchen he

made me wonderful

toys with great

mended. ...

toy

skill

In

trains,

a cardboard

railway

puppet theatre. The

heads were clay, the costumes cut and
sewn by himself, the scenery pasted
and painted. A careful record was kept
of the family's income and expenditure,
and

station

new

pictures catalogued, a diary kept

which everything was entered down

to my temperature and my progress in
in

learning to speak. ...

my

father took

me

In

the afternoons

to the outskirts of

the town
he, furnished with a folding
chair, an easel, a box of colours and a
with some of my
bottle of water;
I,

For the

toys.

whole family

my

summer

left

holidays

the

for Berne to stay with

grandparents, or for Beatenberg

where

a great-aunt kept a hotel."

Perhaps the boy who wanted to be a
little girl and wear frilled knickers was
being punished by fate. In the Klee's
small flat the roles of man and woman

were reversed.
It

GROTESQUES FROM THE CIRCUS.

F.

C.

46

Schong Collection,

New

York.

1925.

is

impossible to separate Klee's

his work. Nothing in his life

was lost to his art everything he ever
saw would one day find a place in his
life

from

THE CHILD.

1924.

F.

C.

Schang Collection,

work.

Even during these first hard

Munich his will-power and
discipline allowed him to "master life"
and every moment of these years beyears

in

came

his.

Yet

birth on 30th
complicated things,
Klee had had the good fortune to paint
the portrait of the son of a chemist
from Basle and that of Frau von Sinner
for 800 marks in all.
He was, besides, not so much alone

before

November

Felix's

1907

New

York.

in the city of five thousand painters as

he had thought in a moment of depression. He found old friends again
and made new ones. He visited exhibitions and went to theatres and con-

certs. His greatest pleasure

was that

at

home he

could play music with Lily and

other friends. But for the financial
straits it might have been the life he

was to lead later when he was at the

Bauhaus in Weimar and Dessau. All of it
remained imprinted on his mind. Will
47

DANCE OF THE SAD

Grohmann

rightly

authoritative

than ten years

two

out

points

work on Klee
later,

that,

in

his

more

he immortalized

singers from the

Bavarian State

Opera, conducted by Bruno Walter,

in Fiordiligi (page 43) and The VoiceCloth of the Singer Rosa Silber.

Undoubtedly he was a disconcerting

man. It is surprising how, sometimes,
he does not have adequate technical
ability to match the intense fervour of
his mind. His genius seems to be buried
deep down within him. Some years had
to pass before he could break through
to it. If Pablo Picasso with his immediate
reactions

is

one pole of modern

art,

Paul Klee undoubtedly represents the

opposite

pole.

We

have

patiently for years before

in

his

work

Italy.

48

Bad

initial

wait

discover

that architectural

sense

journey to
influences made the

which had illumined

young

we

to

artist lose a

his

number

of precious

CHILD.

1921. Klee-Stiftung, Berne.

were not entirely without their use, for they forced him to
think things out and ponder them
long. It is only in 191 I, in the illustrations to Candide (published in 1920),
that we recognize in him the great
artist he was to become during the
war. Yet from time to time there are
years, but they

highlights in his work of these years:

the Garden Scene with a Watering Can
of 1905, the delicious Flower-girl with
spots of Colour, and the delicate Youth-

male head with blue eyes. (Cat. 8, 9).

was during the course of this long
search for himself that he elaborated
ful

It

his

complex theories. He is like a plant

one at that which before

a tropical

out foliage puts down firm

roots. Even the bad influences at the
beginning of his career contributed to
make Klee a unique artist. "Evil", he
writes in his Creative Confessions, "will
be neither a triumphant nor a pitiful
putting

FRAGMENT FROM A BALLET FOR AEOLIAN HARP.

1922. Angela Rosengart Collection, Lucerne.

49

^T\^

HERON.
50

1924,

F.

C.

Schong Collection.

New

York.

AQUARIUM WITH

enemy, but
will

a force

SILVERY BLUE FISHES.

which the totah'ty

absorb."

His

first

to 1912

years

were

in

Munich

from

pressionists,

which had been due perhaps to

desire to inspire Lily with his

1905

years of novitiate and

encounters with the Imwith Toulouse-Lautrec,

Ensor, van Gogh, Cezanne and Kandinsky. But it differed from the novitiate
in Berne with its excessive enthusiasms,
of fruitful

1924. Private Collection. Berne.

own

his

faith

in the future, for she was not an artist,

was several years older than he, and
hesitated to face life with a poor young
man. The tone of the Diary is now less

impulsive,

more

balanced. His faith

in

not so much weakened as

tempered by a gentle melancholy.
himself

is

^itr

53

%f

fct*^T^

CONCERT ON THE TWIG.

ktSy^

1921. Klee-Stiftung. Berne.

To earn some money he considered

contributing

to

Simplizissimus,

the
satirical review published in Munich,
which like the periodical Jugend
did much to help the spread of the
"Modern Style". He therefore offered
some of his drawings but they were not
accepted and Klee, in any case, refused

54

to adapt himself to the directives of the

paper.

For

many

years to

come he

would have no other way of mastering

life

except

compromise with

this

to

his

stead he accepted for

modest post teaching

school.

refuse

conscience.

any
In-

some months

art in an evening

HERMITAGE.

The

1925. Felix Klee Collection, berne.

and domestic
prevent him from
attending the school of Meier Graefe
the German critic who devoted himself
with exemplary ardour to defending
the French Impressionists in German/
and Karl Scheffer "to learn" as he
birth

worries,

said

did

of

Felix

not

"to become a good artist".

Meanwhile the first French paintings

were beginning to appear in the Munich
admired
"the economy of values" and the way
in which the painter succeeded in restraining himself in order to bring out
the bright tones. He rightly considered
Vuillard weaker. Oddly enough he
art galleries. In Bonnard, Klee

55

And he

thought Vallotton was stronger. "But

what an unpleasant painter", he hastens to add. Then there were two van
Gogh exhibitions, which affected him

a model tragedy."

profoundly. "At present," he notes

he hailed a master
Now he no
longer hesitated to admit that the
French interested him more than the
Germans. From Berne, Ernst Sonderegger sent him as a present an etching

his Diary, "his

but he

pathos

is

in

foreign to me,

certainly a genius. Emotional

is

to the point of being pathological. This

a brain

is

burning

which

fire

is

suffering

of a star.

It

from the

frees

itself

through its works just before catastrophe overtakes it. A great tragedy
is evolving in him. a tragedy of nature,

concludes:

must be allowed to feel terror."

But it was in Cezanne, eight of
whose pictures were exhibited by the
"I

'Sezession',

that

rather than

in

van Gogh.

to get warm;
was a decisive encounter for
1908, he took the lease of a

by Ensor, Skeletons trying

this, too,

Klee.

In

K9

/^ X 3

:^immmuic.

V-fi.

t;?w!Mv

SEVERITY OF THE CLOUDS.

56

-.^. ^>ayy-^gy

1923. Fe//x K/ee Collection, Berne.

CAMP ROAD.

little

Studio

where he could

1923. Coierie Rosengort. Lucerne.

paint

in

was in this studio that in 1910

he produced the well-known work in
the Expressionist manner, Girl with
Jugs. In Paris that same year Picasso
peace.

It

painted the Cubist portrait of Vollard;

he already had behind him all the Rose

and Blue periods, which alone would

fame as a great artist. But

Klee was one day to make up for the

justify his

long wait.

Meanwhile Klee having discovered

that a picture, like the
consisted of a skeleton,
skin

that

special

is

human body,
muscles and

to say that a picture had a

anatomy

stated

that

he

in-

57

tended to paint:
figures.

He

(a)

space

and

(5)

preferred the palette-knife

to the brush, as being cleaner. Another

of his methods of painting in oils was

to spread the colour in

the canvas and to model
to obtain

his light

flat

washes on
in order

them

and shades.

He was taken up not only with

colour but with

line,

such importance

in

which was to have

work. The line

his

does not exist in nature. One can give

an impression of nature by patches of
colour and tones, he thought, for he
was enthralled by the line of van Gogh
and Ensor. Now his study of nature, to
which he had devoted so many years.

allowed him to renew his attempts at

"psychic improvisations". Without
entirely losing sight of nature, he now
wished to express the feelings which
occupied his mind and heart and those
events which can be translated into
line even at the depth of night. He was
undoubtedly right in thinking that only
thus would his personality be "able to
find fullest liberty".
It

was

1911,

he

this state of

in

began

the

which

mind

that, in

illustrations

in

he

W^'^^^^^^rji^^-

i?0

-ffv

BLOSSOM.
58

to

suddenly rediscovered a childish freedom. Naturlong

ally his childishness had been
pondered, as he hastens to demonCandide,

1924. Klee-Sti flung. Berne.

^/r.

'%4f
;^/Pr
- ^-

^^tr

><y^

weighty arguments. AdCarola

Giedion-Welcker,

strate with

woman's

with

ness,

has discovered certain drawings

natural

inquisitive-

bya mid-nineteenth-century illustrator,

Martin Disteli, whom Klee cannot but
have seen. But we prefer our own
explanation to this learned discovery
that the characters in Can-

namely

dide and their poses are those

Paul Klee

drew

in

<^- ^"'" -idl^

>

SKETCH FOR A PORTRAIT.

mittedly

Vei>

which

early childhood with

1925. Klee-Stiftung, Berne.

the coloured pencils his grandmother

had given him as a present.
There is a greater freedom, too, in
his

other drawings, which are generally

landscapes.

Sometimes

his

line

is

still

hard and loses itself in confused convolutions. But the adventure with the
line has begun. The thoughtful selfportrait of 1911, however, is a considered and cordial act of homage to
the technique of van Gogh.

59

?'

61

^',/, '

''

^^,

NEIGHBOURLY

An

exhibition

in

IDYLL. 1926.

Switzerland

in

F.

C.

Schong Collection,

New

York.

But although the Exhibition had been

in Berne and Zurich, it

1910

which went to Berne, Zurich, Basle

and Winterthur consisting of "56

well received

well-framed sheets" did not pass unobserved. At Zurich one of his watercolours was bought for 200 nnarks. In
Berne, Frau Hanni Burgi decided to
start a collection of his works. Summoning up his courage, Klee wrote to

the public protested and the Museum,

wishing to avoid trouble with the

who

Lily,

who

had remained

in

Munich and

evidently ruled him with a rod of

even

she had the affection and

the anxieties of a good wife telling
her that he could no longer do housework all day long and asking her to let
iron

if

him have halfa day free for his work. He

was now thirty; she was thirty-three.
62

ended

unfortunately;

in

Winterthur

authorities, hastened to send back his

works.
Fortunately he was no longer alone.

little

circle of friends

round him. Above

had formed

there were his

childhood friends
Bloesch and the
Swiss painters, Kreydolf and Welti.
all

The Zurich

painter,

Thomann,

invited

the association known as

'Waize'. Thanks to Louis Moilliet he

him to

once

Macke

join

more met Augustus Macke;

knew Kandinsky, who lived

'h
^^^01^

.^d

uJli.

FIGHT WITH THE DRAGON.

close to Klee. Louis Moilliet,

often visited, also

who

1926.

Klee

knew Kandinsky and

went to and fro between them, showing them each other's work. After
Kandinsky, whom Klee met personally
in the autumn of 1911, other new
{friends came to comfort him for his
I

set-backs
j

Franz Marc, who was to be

of all. Campendone,
Jawlensky, Marianne von Werefkin and
Gabrielle Munter. All these artists

Shis

favourite

(were to form a group which would

[make itself known to the public in
Munich that same year under the name
;i

'Der Blaue Reiter' the Blue Horseman.

Kandinsky was to have great in-

jlof

F.

C.

Schong

Collection,

New

York.

fluence on his young colleague. Klee

was ripe for this important new friendship for he had already written

in

his

Diary:

"More important than nature

and

study

its

is

the ability to concen-

own box
ought to be able to make
free fantasies on the plane of colour."
trate on the contents of one's

of colours.

In the same way his study of light prepared him for the no less important
meeting, it took place in Paris a few
months later, in April 1912 with

Robert Delaunay.
Kandinsky's
found
Klee
"bizarre". But after getting to
him personally he had great faith
Russian artist

who

"is

works

know
in

the

somebody and
63

AFRICAN VILLAGE SCENE.

1925.

has a tremendously nice head". Writ-

of the influence Kandinsky would have

ing in a Swiss paper

on the first 'Blaue

Reiter' exhibition by Thannhauser,
Klee said: "Kandinsky is the most

on him both through his work and

through his writings, particularly his

audacious of them all, because he tries

to convince us with words as well."

in Art.

He
to

himself was invited to contribute

it
was
the second exhibition

limited to engravings
in

64

which was held

March 1912.
At this point Klee had no suspicion
CHILD

book, Concerning the Spiritual Element

Although he admired Kandinsky

Franz Marc for one

because Kandinsky was much
older and he was slightly afraid of him.
And yet he was to go a long way with
Kandinsky.

he

preferred

thing

ON

THE

STEPS. 1923. Private Collection, Berne.

"^^'mikim^-:^ ^mmmii^.

ilSr

^^

^#

jitj\r^^6

HEAD OVER HEAD.

66

'*y j-

1926.

-^(-tx.

F.

C.

^^-^ -

Schang Collection.

New

York.

im^

.<i.

THE GREAT DOME.

Paris

and Cubism

1927.

Klee-Stiftung, Berne.

Berne,

Klee arrived

in

Paris

on 2nd

April 1912. That same evening his wife

Klee's second visit to Paris would not
have the importance which the critics
rightly attribute to it had he not spent
three hours out of that memorable
fortnight with Robert Delaunay and
the Cubists. These three hours enabled
him to gain years by freeing him from
the doubts which tormented him and
by aiding him to find himself. Leaving
little

Felix

with

his

grandparents

in

arrived from Munich to join him.

Their

first

week was

tirely to sight-seeing.
satisfy

her

curiosity

given over enLily

wanted to

which,

to

be

honest, was essentially that of a tourist.

They saw the boulevards, the Seine,

Notre-Dame, l'Opera, Montmartre,
the Sacre-Cceur, the Quartier Latin
the Sainte-Chapelle and so on. In the
evenings, except for one given over to

67

MATERIALISED GHOSTS.
68

1923. Siegfried Rosengart Collection. Lucerne.

"^'4
THE BIRD CALLED

PEP. 1925. Private Collection. Berne.

the Opera Rigoletto and ballet they

preferred popular amusements: the
Bai Tabarin, the Moulin de la Gaiette
and the Bai Bullier. Naturally they
paid

long

visits

to the

Louvre,

Luxembourg and the Salon des

the
Ind-

pendants.
It

Nth

young unknown painter.

visit, which was to influence
him so greatly, Klee merely wrote in

was

that
in

the morning of the

he went to see Robert
his studio. Sonia Delaunay,
until

the painter's widow, has no recollec-

Of

his

was not

Delaunay

visit. No day went by without some unknown painter coming to

see her husband, and Klee in these days

tion of the

that

"Visited

Diary:

morning

in

his

Delaunay

studio."

in

He

the
says

nothing of the pictures which Delaunay

showed him, nor of their conperhaps because at this
versation
certainly

69

with

and Sondereghe had met in Paris, visited

and dealer Wilhelm Uhde,

his friends Mailer

ger,

whom

the

critic

who

had

already

shown

own

his

Munich and was now

collecting the works of Rousseau,
Picasso and Braque while waiting for
"la peinture naive" to which he would
collection

in

eventually

dedicate

In

himself entirely.

the house of another

German

dealer,

Henri Kahnweiler, Klee saw

more Cubist paintings and works by
Derain and Vlaminck. On the 15th they
visited the flat of the Impressionists'
dealer, Durand-Ruel, who once a week,
like a
Roman prince, allowed the
public to penetrate the privacy of his
house. On the same day, Lily left for
Munich after watching her husband
sign one hundred lithographs. That is
what the Diary says without giving any
other clue to the lithographs, of which
even the most painstaking of Klee's
biographers seem to be ignorant. Klee,
however, then left for Berne to collect
Felix and take him home.
The most important meeting during the visit was that with Robert
Delaunay. In the famous passage on
Fenetres by Delaunay, Klee describes
him as "one of the most intelligent
artists of his time". He is much less
enthusiastic about Cubism. "Cubism,"
he writes in the same passage, "that
school of philosophers of form, has
found admirers in the field of landscape, but in the field of portraiture it
David

AN

INSIGNIFICANT FELLOW BUT

THE ORDINARY

OUT OF

1927.

Coierie Rosengort, Lucerne.

period he found

it impossible to connever left him for a

moment. In the evening they came
back late and tired. And on the evening
of the visit to Delaunay Lily wished to
go to the Bai Bullier, of which Klee had
spoken so much.
Next day Klee and his wife, together

centrate.

70

Lily

inevitably reveals

its

ridiculous nature.

Landscape can more easily suffer the

proportion of the objects represented
the
to be changed by simplification
result is always a landscape. Animals
.

BOTANICAL GARDEN.

1926. Klee-Stiftung, Berne.

71

SHIP M

72

IN

HARBOUR.

1925. Private Collection. Berne.

and men, which are created to live, lose

something of their power to live with
each deformation. Even when they
have to be fitted into a heterogeneous
plastic organism or, as with Picasso,
broken up into separate patterns, they
are assigned the place which the idea
behind the picture demands." But,
according to Klee, Delaunay avoidb
falling
into these incongruities, by
creating a type of independent picture,
which has a totally abstract formal life
"without motifs taken from nature".
None of this, of course, is very
accurate.
What Klee admired in
Delaunay and would later admire in the
Italian Futurists

he condemned

was movement; what

Cubism was its static

in

quality.

Thus we read

"It

said

is

repose, but

that
I

should

the Diary:

in

demanded
demand
movement."

Ingres
like

to

over and above feeling

He must have translated with joy the
article which Delaunay sent him some
time later for Der Sturm, one of the first
reviews dedicated to the new art in
Europe. There Delaunay says: "Impressionism
painting.

our

is

Light

sensibility.

the birth of light in

comes to us through

Without

visual

sensi-

there can be no light, no movement. Light creates in nature the move-

bility

ment of colours. Movement

arises

from

the relationship between the disparate

proportions of the contrasting colours

themselves which constitute Reality.

That reality has depth (we can see as
far as the stars) and so becomes
simultaneity. Simultaneity in terms of
light is harmony, the rhythm of colours
which creates man's vision. Human
vision

is

endowed with the greatest

73

reality

of

all,

since

it

comes to

us

THE MENAGERIE PARADES.

from

contemplation of the
Universe. The eye is our most noble
sense the one which communicates
most closely with our brain. Consciousness and the idea of the living movement of the world is simultaneity."
directly

These were ideas which Klee had

been turning over for a long time. In
1910 he had written in his Diary:
"There is nothing new in producing
light by heightening tones. Light as the

movement of
much newer."

colours
In

is

short the

something

two

artists

spoke the same language and had the

same problems. Delaunay was well

known

in

Sverin

he

Germany. With
had

daringly

his

Saint-

posed

the

problem of space and perspective and

influenced young De Chirico who, like
painting
in
Munich.
Klee, studied
Theirs was a language for poets, musi-

74

1926.

Private Collection, Berne.

cians

and

painters.

Klee,

who was

drawn now to nature, now to

tion,

but

who

abstrac-

could not completely

detach himself from nature, found in

Delaunay, the heir of post-Impressionism, a guide and model. On the other
hand, Kandinsky, who at that period at

took his colours from nature,

pushed Klee towards abstraction.
Delaunay was to influence Klee even
more than Kandinsky. In the painter of
the Tour Eiffel, Klee was to find what
Picasso found in Matisse. The two poles
of modern art devoured their contemporaries so to speak: the one.
least

BIRD DRAMA.

1920.

uncle's restaurant, Klee had

The Solomon Guggenheim Museum,

New

York.

comments on the poems

drawn

his

of Christian

Morgenstern. Contrary to the opinion

who considered these
drawings childish, there is already in
the Exciting Animals of 1912 the Klee
of 1925, with a line which is bold even
of the critics,

gently and almost as

if

he were begging

when

into geometric
drawings dating
1913, such as the Policeman in
are less important and in the
it

their pardon; the other, brutally and

patterns.

almost joyfully.

from

Another happy encounter for Klee

in 1913, was that with Arp. Arp, who
was then twenty-five, had arranged an

Flight,

exhibition of avant-garde art

in

Zurich

alongwithsome friends. Kleewelcomed

the unknown young man courteously
and showed him his drawings, among
them those for Candide. After the
illustrations to Candide, which recall
both his first childish drawings and the
arabesques he had admired as a boy in
the veined marble table-tops in his

forced

is

The

latter

nature of puerile cartoons. The

trations to Candide excited

Arp

illus-

greatly,

promised to suggest to a
another Alsatian, Otto
Flake, that they should be published.
Flake had a great deal of influence with

and

he

friend of his

the publishers of the Weissen Bucher.

Klee was greatly moved and, taking his
violin

from

Then he

sat

asked for

its

case,

down

his

began to

play.

beside his guest and

news;. as he listened he

75

SEMITIC BEAUTY.

76

1927. Klee-Stiftung, Berne.

-'

'

CARNIVAL

his

he

noticed

IN

THE MOUNTAINS.

lay curled

knees. At one point,

recently,

f*

Stroked a cat which

-pPIPV'

i'^

Arp

that

up on
related

Klee

was

removing fleas from the beast with

extremely deft fingers and squashing
them against the corner of the table
with a sharp flick of his nail.
Some time later Klee visited Arp's
exhibition and wrote an article on it
for a review. Then he returned Arp's
visit. He found him living in the utmost
solitude near Weggis with his father,

who

1924. Klee-Stiftung, Berne.

had

factory

in

left

Alsace and set up a small

Switzerland

see his sons

in

in

German

order not to
uniform. But

even the Arps' solitude was comforted

by numerous friendships and Klee was

welcomed "like a great man".

Arp is convinced that he succeeded
in having the German translation of
Candide with Klee's illustrations published in the Weissen Bucher. But the
artist's bibliography contradicts this
statement; it gives the first publication

77

'

of Candide as 1920 in Munich under the

editorship of Kurt Wolff.

Unlike Cubism, Italian Futurism

aroused Klee's immediate sympathy;
he considered Boccioni and Beverini
to be "very good" and went so far as
to hail Carr as the heir of Tintoretto
and Delacroix. Yet in Klee's work it is
easier to trace the influence of the
Cubists than of the Futurists. If anything, it was in Carre's metaphysical
and not his Futuristic style and, above
all,

in

De

Chirico's

first

period, that

Klee found fruitful models. His first

impulses were never the most genuine.
too,

this,

In

Picasso,

who

the opposite

of

exists almost entirely

on

he

is

coups de foudre.
Finally,

These water-colours together with the

charming Young Woman in the green
Blouse
from Felix Klee's collection
are worthy of a great artist and it

is

extremely

important for a number of works

which reveal Klee's maturity landscapes like the very beautiful In the
Quarry (page 9), and pictures like that
brilliant scene with
flavour of
its
Cezanne, Canne of Cards in the Carden.

the

Piper,

publisher,

gave

Klee

further cause for satisfaction by inviting him to collaborate in a publication

on the Expressionists. Herwarth Walden, the editor of Der Sturm, expressed

the wish to exhibit some of his works

in
Berlin along with those of Franz
Marc and Kubin an artist whose

principal merit

one of the

first

perhaps to have been

admirers and collectors
is

of Klee. Klee sent twenty-two pictures.

was

his

most important contribution

show
more im-

to an exhibition since his one-man

in

Switzerland. But an even

portant event

soon

his

journey to Tunisia

made him forget these

successes,
however much he
-

desired them.

PORTO-FERRAIO ELBA.
78

strange that the critics have so far

is

overlooked them.

It

the year 1913

1927. Phil

Hon,

U.S.A.

early

had

ANIMALS AT FULL MOON.

1927.

F.

C.

Schang Collection,

New

York

After fifteen years of study, of experi-

knew a Swiss doctor in Tunis

had once invited him over. He
proposed that his friends, Klee and

ence and of fruitful exchanges, Paul

Klee although greatly esteemed by a
small circle of friends
was still not
the painter or the poet whom we
admire today.
The journey to Tunisia on the initia-

Macke, should accompany him. The

expenses of the trip were met because
a chemist in Berne had bought several
of their pictures. On 5th April thethree
friends were in Marseilles. Klee was
fascinated by the city and would will-

Africa

Moilliet

who

tive of his painter-friend, Louis Moilliet

in

1916 the Basle

one of

work
finally

his

Museum

pictures, the first

to be hung

put him on

in a

Swiss

his road.

acquired

modern

museum

ingly

have stayed there.

He

felt

in-

tensely the poetry of the old harbours

and the contrast between the old
streets

sleeping

in

the sun and the

noisy animation of the port.

79

The next day they embarked on the

Carthagene, a

new steamer

belonging

to the French Line. Klee, who had

taken the precaution of providing himself with pills against sea-sickness, stood
the crossing very well and could give
himself up to the magic of the colours
"of the air and the water", which gave
a foretaste of the great revelation he
was to experience a few days later in
Kairouan.

"My
"always

father",
felt

strongly."

Kairouan,

In

the

wrote
call

Felix

Tunis, at Carthage and at

Klee

seems

to

have

BERIDE (AQUATIC

80

Klee,

of the South very

re-

discovered something of himself ("My

real
country?" he asked himself.)

He had the

feeling that

he was re-

establishing his ties with that civilization which, by

had given him

some
his

distant admixture,

deep Moorish eyes.

For the moment, he forgets his highsounding statements about line and
simultaneous contrasts in order to
paint water-colours in which form is
almost an accident of colour. If he
thought of anyone in those days it must
have been of Cezanne, his true master.
But his colours, even if pale, arethicker,
the brush strokes broader almost

TOWN).

1927. Klee-Stiftung, Berne.

^~.*^.r:1/^'3;>|

^.;i.i;ti^

.,itriiwiiiii

LITTLE PICTURE

OF

ft/ii

m.

DICE. 1925. Urvater

yt*J*:..w*i*-

Collection. Brussels.

^
Klee's poetry, which nothing would
ever be able to suffocate neither his
irony nor the dramatic pessimism of
his last years with its roots in illness

was born on Easter Sunday on the

of the Mediterranean. The
evening before he had painted Easter
eggs for his host's children and hidden
them in the garden. Some days
he had encountered a
previously
funeral on the outskirts of Tunis. Six
mules pulled the hearse on which the
coffin had been hoisted, all gold and
bright blue. Round the hearse women
were lamenting loudly. On that warm
Easter evening everything that had
struck him in the last few days the
landscape, melancholy with palms, the
colour of the air and the sea, the starry
sky, the immense new moon, the sultry
noon tide, the meeting with the blue
and gold hearse, the eggs hidden in the
green bushes everything came to life

shores

again

DWARF WITH A

ROSE.

1927.

Rosengart Collection, Lucerne

bands of colour. The division of space

into horizontal or vertical sections
recalls Delaunay.
The pages in which he recorded his
unforgettable fortnight's stay in Tunisia are full
of happiness
a happiness which is above all physical
and of
calm confidence in his own powers.
Even when he measures the long road
ahead he is not at all depressed. It is no
longer his earlier, rather overweening,
confidence proclaimed with loud fanfares. It is confidence which comes from
the heart and which he has long
pondered.

82

in his

mind

like a fairy-tale "still

very far away, very far, and yet so, so

clear": a magic tale worthy of The
Thousand and One Nights. Klee felt it
stir him profoundly and permanently:
"More than one blond moonrise of the

North

will call

me

in

low voice,

like

the blurred image in a mirror. It will be

my betrothed, my other self But
myself am the rising moon of the
I

South.".
In
short, that evening Klee discovered his true vein of poetry. It was
as if something which was already
there, but repressed and cramped, had
suddenly been liberated, freeing his
imagination, which, even when forced
to conform to certain patterns imposed
by his sense of discipline, would remain

lively

and keen. Thus

were happily
"I

all

atavisms

his

reconciled.

Sonne days later at Kairouan he said:

do not
ann possessed by colour

need to pursue

me

possess

moment;

it.

know

that

it

will

the great
and colour are one. am a
for ever. This

is

painter."

In

emotion

inevitably

as

life,

in

poetic

his art,

precedes

plastic

expression.

The

actual water-colours he

brought

View of Saint-Germain
I), Motif from Hammamet (Cat.
(Cat.
were
3), Before the Gates of Kairouan

back to Berne
I

almost insignificant compared to those

he carried in his head. The moon, the
full moon of the South or the disturbing crescent of the Mussulman, the
Biblical star, the strange plants, the
little

across

cupolas

which we

shall

come

the greens, the

later years,

in

bright yellows, the tints of sand and

parched

earth,

the

for

the

little flags,

cer-

feeling

Arab buildings and the

mysterious signs which are fragscript, the carpet

texture of some compositions are, as it
were, reflections of an experience
which nothing could obliterate. The
little square Arab houses meanwhile
tain

ments of Arabic

most orthodox essays in

Cubism. To obtain pardon for the
inspired his

liberty he had taken, he then painted

Homage to Picasso (Cat.

of brown and grey rectangles

a surprising
1

4), a play

and squares set in an oval.

But unlike most men from the West
who suddenly discover the Orient, he
did not abandon himself to an orgy of
colour.
cannot expect from Klee
streams of chromatic colour and

We

apocalyptic blazes; instead

we

find that

ORIENTATED MAN.

1927.

Private Collection, U.S.A.

precise sense of colour, which comes

from perfect tonal harmony, or the

jewelled splendour of a single hue, of a

simple patch of colour. He

one of those painters of

whom

Bonnard

said:

is

above

all

of

'feeling',

"He produces

closed world, a picture which

is

in

the

nature of a book and carries its interest

with it wherever it goes. One imagines
this artist spending a great deal of time
doing nothing but looking around and
looking within."
Suddenly, on the eve of

his

departure.
83

SLIGHT
i.

84

DANGER AT

SEA. 1928. Klee-Stiftung. Berne.

FULL

he

felt

alone

MOON.

1927. Private Collection, Berne.

the need to be alone, to eat

the best Italian restaurant

in

embark alone third class

Palermo, where he admired the
"strong personality" of the mountain

in

Tunis, to

for

which dominates the city. In Naples

and Rome he felt he had returned after
only a few days' absence. Instead
twelve years had passed since his first
fruitful stay. He did not even stop in
Florence. Milan was only a compulsory

break in his journey as he waited for

the train for Berne.
Admittedly he was short of money,
but in his haste there was, above all,
fear of losing by the way that treasure
of images and sensations which he

wished to bring home intact. Without

that treasure, the war, which was about
to break out would have been much
more painful and perhaps even fatal to
him.

85

CASTLE OF THE ORDER.

86

1929. Klee-StifWng. Berne.

M!

RAIN.

1927. Klee-Stiftung, Berne.

War

side

world and forced him to take

refuge
If it is

true, as Carola

states, that

Giedion-Welcker

immediately after the war

"Klee seems to flourish like a tropical

it was during the war that he
struck down roots and grew in stature.
It
was during the war that at last
"everything became Klee". Soon after
his return from Tunis and the outbreak
plant",

of the war, of

whose

useless horrors

in

confesses,

himself. This, as he himself

was the

In

source of ab-

real

straction as far as he

happy world there

was concerned.
is

looking around one; but

of moral and material

comfort

in

lies

a pleasure

in

world

ruin the only

memories

lived intensely.

"Everything becomes Klee"

of

days

but

a dream, a sort of reve veill,

leads the Surrealists to

in

full

in

which

recognize

in

he had had a presentiment as is demonstrated by some drawings dated 1913,

poetry and painting fused into those
ideograms which he called "picture-

sight of

poems".
The war cut Klee

example of Delaunay and the Cubists,

movement, light, colour and space.

off

from the out-

him one of their most authoritative

precursors. Although he did not lose

new

orientations, such as the

87

TT"^"'VSl\

'

"

" i|

.....

TSTW?;-

HMi-liMfmit

M^

J> ..r;.i^',"<>i..>
y>*

I.

f^rir'

*'-"l^

,.,^41*

5 r,.;uu <ty

*'lilUi^..--^<i
ill

COAST OF PROVENCE.

1927.

F.

C. Schang,

New

York.

/t*w*

were thought out anew by Klee

in

essentially poetic terms.

It

may seem

surprising that a person

of Klee's sensitivity could so easily dis-

^mv

fmmWm^mkB

sociate himself from the anguish of

the war and concentrate on his work.
The death at the front, a few weeks

the outbreak of hostilities, of

Macke, with whom he had the bond
of the journey to Tunis, did not

after

seem to move him excessively, or at

least no more than the death in childbirth of the wife of his other travelling

companion,

Louis

Moilliet.

war within me

carried this

have

"I

for a long

time", he confided to his Diary. "And

that is why it no longer concerns me
internally." It must not be forgotten
that he was not a real German, moreover the fact that he had passed his
childhood in Switzerland had no doubt
taught him the futility of military
adventures. However, as a German on
the reserve, he did his duty but without
zeal. Not having been called up, he was

granted

passport

by

the

military

authorities to go to Switzerland,

where

he wanted to visit his family. He had to

promise to come back to Germany at
the end of his stay. "What would be
without Germany?" he protested
I

sincerely.
All

his friends

were

called up,

like

or scattered, like Kandinsky, who had gone back to Russia,

Jawlensky and Marianne von Werefkin,
Franz

whom

Marc,

he found

in

Switzerland.

The

Weissen Bucher hesitated to publish

Candide and, like most publishers when
they cannot reach a decision, with-

drew

Only one ray

gloomy scene

into hostile silence.

of light illumined the

89

'..;*r

x/

Uu.fiiMj^

V .;i--

91

DESERT MOUNTAINS.

92

1929. Kee-Stiftung. Berne.

SONG TO THE MOON.

the acquaintance with Rilke, who was

already famous as the author of the
Stundenbuch. Rilke admired Klee the

more than Klee the

They frequently met either in

1927. Klee Stiftung. berne.

Klee brought Rilke sixty of

positions

in

colour, which he

his

com-

left

with

the poet for several months so that he

them

Thus

draughtsman

could study

painter.

Rilke was at last able to form a clear

Klee's flat or
by Rilke and

in

the vast studio shared

his

friend,

Lou Albert-

Lazar. Klee, to keep the talk off the

war, organized small concerts with his

and some friends. The poet's

external "elegance" aroused the painter's amazement. "How does he do
it?" he asked.
Speaking of this friendship, Jean
wife

Warmoes

has

recently

stated

that

at his leisure.

idea of the transition from painting

from nature to abstraction. In a letter
to his friend, Lou Balladine, dated 23rd

February 1921, he writes

as follows:

"They attracted me and held my

attention all the more because one
could

still

which

feel

the influenceofKairouan,
During these war

know.

have often had exactly the same

feeling that reality was disappearing;
years

93

for

it

is

know

a question of faith to

what degree we accept

reality

to

and

then attempt to express ourselves

through it. Broken and mutilated
creatures are best rendered by their

own

What

debris.

is

astonishing

he had a telegram with the news of the

death at Verdun of Franz Marc, his
dearest friend
a man of whom he

could not think without, as a reflex,

thinking of himself, so much did they
have in common, even if Klee felt him-

apart from the disappearance of the

self

proper is that at present

music and graphic art take each other

artistic creation.

for subject. This short circuit

man

territorial

as far

Klee,

who

am concerned the most disturbphenomenon of the present day;

it is a phenomenon which liberates,

down

subject

arts,

of which

as

ing

yet

the

nature and even the

know

imagination

in

nothing,

is

'

one cannot go.

Franz Marc came to visit him on his

since farther than that

'

short leaves. Klee played Bach fugues

to belong to a different sector of

in the Gerwas not unbearable. The long marches distracted

Military

gets

life

for a soldier

forces

did not feel the least cast

regularly confusing the tar-

at

on

the

ranges.

attitude was that the

Otherwise his
war must not

prevent him from painting and taking

part

in

known

exhibitions.

He worked

un-

to his superiors, converting a

workshop. He painted

for him; Marc, quite unimpressed by

box into

splendour of the lieutenant's

uniform he was wearing, listened to
him and turned over the pages of Jaw-

with the paper on his knees under the

table. Then he was transferred to
almost
having
Gersthofen
where,
nothing to do, he found time to read
Chinese poetry and collections of
children's verses. He was given a short

the

lensky's Variations.
n March 9 6 K lee too was cai led to
the colours. At almost the same time
I

WAVES.
94

his

1929. Felix Klee Collection, Berne.

7/>j

THE RENDEZVOUS.

1929.

leave to be present at the vernissage of

an

exhibition

of his

work

in

Berlin

arranged by the periodical Der Sturm.

His works began to sell and he hinnself
both to reap the first-fruits of his work
and to read the first critiques of his
work. But the most welcome reward
was the financial one. Now he was sure
that, when he returned to Munich on
demobilization, he could engage a
maid. A big Leipzig weekly asked him
for a photograph of a picture for reproduction. He hastened to enquire how
much hewould get forthe reproduction

F.

C.

Schang

Collection,

New

York.

But this was not mere greed on

One of his favourite pastimes
was book-keeping a pastime he could
pursue even in his regiment for they
made him look after the regimental
rights.

his part.

funds, after keeping him

in

workshop

painting aeroplane wings. At the end of

the war he possessed a considerable

sum thanks
his dealers,

to the payments made by

Goltz, for the

Walden and

sale of his pictures.

Even among the greatest there are

very few artists who, like Klee, have
had the good fortune to see their first
95

LITTLE

PORTRAIT OF GIRL

IN

YELLOW.

1925.

F.

C.

Schang Collection.

New

York.

crowned with finanBut undoubtedly Klee's

water-colours, in spite of some easily
artistic successes

cial

success.

identifiable

influences,

reveal

new

and powerful artistic personality. He

was confirmed in his conviction that
true painting can only be painting of
the feelings. Lookingoutof the window
one day at dusk, he thought that the
diffused

richer

96

in

haze can be
colour than a sunny day; but

light of a slight

^\

CHILD

AND DOG.

he considered it folly to attempt to fix

it on canvas as the Impressionists would
have done; the moment of time is too
short. One must give the mind time to
be penetrated by the event. And this,
French painting from Delacroix on
seems to have forgotten.
It was Klee's great merit to realize
at once that Braque's 'inventions', such
as the insertion of letters or numbers
in a picture, have no other scope than

1929. Collection of Mrs. Robert Cage. Mtlford, Conn.

a poetic one. So too with the news-

paper cuttings and the coloured paper

in the 'papiers colls'. As he was taken
by Braque's letters so he was by De
Delaunay's little
Chirico's arrows,
crosses and windows, and the doors of
the 'metaphysical' painters. All these
elements mingled with the images of
his own past and the memories of days
of happiness. A "cosmic community"
occupied his mind. He dreamt of

97

K,

LONG HAIR SOULFUL.

1929.

F.

C.

Schang Collection,

New

York.

moons and
Certain

mark

stars,

signs

forced

like

arrows and
the

themselves

suns.

exclamation

upon

him

because there is nothing corresponding to them in plastic art.

The subjects of his work the

'themes' which have been so

cussed

98

he

owed

to

much

either

dis-

artistic

BARBARIC, CLASSICAL, SOLEMN.

memories, Carpet of Memory (Cat. 12)

or to literature, The Death of the
Nightingale (1917). At other times
they arise from graphic or formal inventions like the astonishing Ab ovo
(Cat. 21) or the Little Vignette in Egypt
(page 21). Works like Chamber architecture or the Anatomy of Aphrodite

1926. Lr\c Estorick, London.

(page

17)

are pure abstractions,

but

works he is forced
to rediscover those signs which drift
through his mind and which, like the
pine and the moon, have become his
even

in his

abstract

own symbols. In 1917 he even reduced

the Rainbov/ to a pure abstract design,
as in Colour Corner (Cat. 18) of the
99

same year he did the metaphysical

labyrinths of

De

FAMILY WALK.

1930. Klee-Stiftung. Berne.

Chirico, realizing that

cannot simply be Wilde's

"symbols and space".
Sometimes in his creative fervour he
felt the need to work contemporaneously on compositions which had
nothing in common and which repainting

quired different techniques. At other

times he was possessed by the mania
for

variations.

He

knew

that

the

spectator wishes to be astonished like

Diaghilev

saying

to

young Cocteau:

Etonne-moi." Klee accepted the challenge and no one will probably ever
succeed in being the source of more

astonishment than he.

later years, stumbling on the
In
memory of these first happy compositions, the initial drawings which he
jealously preserved, Klee did not hesitate to reshape them, just as

100

between

1915 and

1918 he rethought

and, round about

Cubism

1930, Neo-division-

ism.

The question

is

whether these

thinkings' really brought him

're-

nearer

to what he called the "heart of creation". Undoubtedly so, ifthe "heart of

creation"

is

poetry, as

in

his

work.

But we must not see in him as JosephEmile Mijller justly remarks, "a mere
case of inspiration. He is not the
irresponsible voice of something which
shakes him and dominates him in spite
of himself. He is at the same time

FEAR OF BECOMING DOUBLE.

1929.

Coierie Rosengart. Lucerne.

By mixing chalk and colours Klee did

not propose to give the illusion of a
fresco. Unlike the Cubists he replaced
the reality of daily life, of the daily
paper, by an ageless reality. He transferred the law of contrasts from the
of optics to that of metaphysics
and drewthe most extreme conclusions

field

c^'

a craftsman and this craftsman is

very deliberate, very methodical. He
knows the nature of all his materials,
for

part

precisely

another

of
in
in

his

work

has

consisted

examining them one after

order to master them with

intelligence."

The complex alchemy

of his water-

colours, as of his oil-paintings,

is

due

essentially to his previous researches

and
had
had
and

to the example of Cubism, which

proposed to use new materials, but
then repented of its own audacity
gone back to traditional materials.

from it. Dissatisfied with pure colour

he mixed oils with tempera colours
and water-colours: he scraped the
paper or canvas even using a pumicestone; he mixed glue and varnish. He
is himself unsure whether to consider
one oT his paintings an oil-painting or a
water-colour. He even calls certain of
his drawings in Chinese ink, ink-watercolours if diluted with water; nor is he
wrong, for even black is a colour
indeed, as Renoir said, the queen of
colours. What he is most concerned
with is the truth, the solidarity, the
101

time-resisting quality of his colours.

ideograms and the geometrical com-

Nor

always cramped.

positions like Castle Garden (1919) he

looks forward to the 'magic squares'

colourists of

of the

true to say that his colour

it

is

He was
make

to

is

He is one of the rare

our age.
musician and did not claim

works the equivalent of

his

musical composition
a brief melodic

merely

phrase.

In

music.

a motif,

a picture

Klee

to

these almost

musical

measures

White

Domes

plastic
as

in

(1914).

space

into

the Red and

With the

-iV

already present

in

is

above

all

indestructible symbols

of his period of happiness. Living figures

are rare but there

is the disquieting
Canary Magician painted in Munich in

divide

is

symbolical

the conflict between North and South,

between fragile pines and fanatic moons

haps one day find

in
his
later
Mozart, and
works,
Hindemith and Schonberg.
If we take the works painted during
the war and add the landscapes from
the years 9 9 to 920, on them there is
"all Klee". In Rhythm of Autumn Trees
we find once more the horizontal
bands of the 'ideograms' which allowed

first

Nightingale Singing. There

Klee a musician will permuch of Bach and

In

period. Klee the mystic

compositions of
1918, With the Eagle (Cat. 24) and The
Descent of the Dove, Klee the romantic
in 6/ue Roof and Orange Moon and in The

the

space and time are not what they are

in

Weimar

of the tragic years

1920. There are few studies directly

from nature, which in 1913 had given

the splendid water-colour In the

Quarry (page 9) and then all the
Tunisian water-colours. The artist now
seeks for his inspiration within himself
us

;jii!"

*'?.

.^^

s'f!:v

i&.

^u
STUDY.

1931. Klee-Stiftung. Berne.

102

FLAGGED TOWN.

1927. Private Collection, Berne.

?^il;

'mfr

:>'S<-

.^^;^:?^

CONSTRUCTION BASED ON VARIATIONS.

104

1927. Klee-Svftung, Berne.

'Creative Confession'
K lee's

Creative

was

Confession

pub-

lished in a little collection appearing in

1920,

of

which contains essays by

playwrights,

poets,

a score

and

painters

among them Benn, Unruh,

musicians;

Beckmann, Marc and

Schonberg. Klee had made an earlier
version of his essay at the end of 1918
at
Gersthofen, shortly before demobilization. According to Jurg Spiller,
he at that time called these few pages,
which the recent appearance of KanToller, Pechstein,

dinsky's Painting considered as Pure Art

had greatly encouraged him to write,

Thouglits

on

Drawing

and on

Art

in

general.

essay
Klee's
begins with short

The
tion

it

first

is

publica-

sentence
up the reflections and
a

which summed

experiences of twenty years of work;

twenty years of hectic creation

which followed, it would remain the
formula which epitomized the essentials of his view of art. "Art does not
reproduce the visible; it renders visifor the

ble."

But

these

reflections,

as

the

from the
experience of Klee the draughtsman.
The nature of graphic art easily tempts
one to abstraction and rightly so. The
purer the draughtsmanship that is to
say, the more stress is laid on the
formal elements which are the basis of
the drawing the more inadequate is
the framework for the realistic repreoriginal title indicated, flow

sentation

of visual

formula once again

objects.

reveals

But this
a truth

arrived at by a long period of work. It

is a conclusion, a result; the task was

now to

get back to the elements.

'

The
105

>'

m*'.^K-r'-r>r>i..

""UT*
^'

'.fi^W^^^I

..^^I3~

<')iJL-^!6-.-J'>'-^'^-^^
*

>

,^,

Ma^Ha^^^^^CiJf:

/*

'

Mrs

^fti_bt.ift-f ^-'4-

-K'Ia

T
FEAR BEHIND THE CURTAIN.

formal elements of drawing are: points,

the energy of the line, surface and
space."

The element of

surface,

for

instance, will be the energy

by means of a thick pencil.

produced
An example

of the element of space

is

a cloudy,

vaporous mark produced byafull brush

with varying degrees of strength.
In order to multiply and vary his
examples and make us see them in the
most concrete manner possible, Klee

1929. Galerie Rosengart. Lucerne.

proposes to his reader to accompany

him on a walk, a little excursion into
the country; we shall see how the
phenomena of nature are represented
by the graphic elements and their combinations. We start off from a point:
that gives us a line. We stop once or
twice; the line has been broken or
articulated. We cross a river by boat
an undulatory movement. A ploughed
a syface scored with lines. Mist
field

107

LEAF

FROM THE

TOWN

RECORDS.

1928.

Kunstmuseum,

Basle.

in

valley

meet

people.

home with

element.

spatial

We

Basketmakers

coming
wheel). They

their cart (a

have a child with them with funny curls

corkscrew motion). Later the
(a
weather becomes sultry and lowering
(spatial element). A flash of lightning

on the horizon (a zigzag line). There are

stars overhead (scattered dots).
The day comes to an end. We reach the
inn and here Klee, who was certainly
thinking of many such walks he had
taken in the Swiss countryside or near
Munich, concludes: "Before we fall
asleep many things will recur to our
memory, for a little journey like this is
rich in impressions." To sum up he
still

writes:

"All

kinds of different

lines.

Blobs of colour. Stippling. Stippled and

surfaces.
Undulatory movement. Broken, articulated movement.
Counter-movement. Objects interlaced and interwoven. Masonry, peeling
stone. Harmony with one voice. With

striped

several voices. Line losing

itself,

gaining

strength (dynamic)."

Thus certain elements of graphic

representation have been named and
catalogued, but in order to constitute
forms or objects, the combination of
several elements will usually be necessary and it follows that "thanks to such
enrichment of the symphony of forms,
the possibilities of variation and, thereby, the possibilities of expression are
multiplied to infinity"

examines the essential

between the work of art
and time (or movement). "At the roots
of the process of becoming there is
Klee

next

relationships

always movement."
carding

108

the

He

begins by dis-

traditional

distinction

GIRL
Chris.

between the

WITH DOLL.

1930.

Schang Collection, Westport, Conn.

and temporal arts

spatial

distinction formulated by Lessing

which Klee sees

his Loocoon,
in
in
merely the invention of a pedant: "For
space too is a temporal concept." The
elements of graphic representation are
engendered in time: "When a point
becomes movement and a line, that

demands time.
shifts

to

Similarly,

produce

when

surface.

a line

So too

with the movement from surfaces to

space."
Andtheworkofart?ltscreationissubject to the same law. "It is constructed
piece by piece, exactly like a house."
But the artist, when he reflects on
the birth of a work, does not forget

"the other man, the man who looks at

the picture. Does he finish with the
work in a single glance? Alas, yes, only
too often." But anyone seriously interested in painting requires time and
that was why Feuerbach said that to
understand a picture you need a chair.
"So that the wearying legs will not disturb the mind." Thus everywhere
there is time and movement; that is
the universal law. "The genesis of

ANIMAL HAVING A WALK.

1930.

script

is

an excellent example of move-

ment. The work of art is also first and

foremost, genesis. A fiery desire for
realization flashes from the artist's
brain; passes through his hand, spreads
over the canvas, then, completing the
circle, returns like a spark to his eye
and mind. The eye. like the artist,
comes and goes, works and rests." The

man who

looks at

also temporal. Klee

sums up

essential

work

pictures

is

of the

concept with these words: "Plastic

was born of movement, is itself
movement caught and held and is
his

art

in movement (eye muscles)."

But the artist of today no longer sees
things as they were seen yesterday.
"People used to reproduce things seen

registered

Angelo Rosengart Collection, Lucerne.

109

'

/
T-r-r^-.

^v
^,_J.

'

-.

-V:

''"^

>-.

,,i
:

->
_

--i

i
t

'%':.:

rrmrm

II

Ill

on earth things which had been or

would be seen with pleasure. Today
the reality of visible objects has been
revealed and the belief has been

expressed

that,

in

universe, the visible

relation
is

to

the

only an isolated

case and that other truths exist latently

and are in the majority."
Just as the simultaneous existence of
the male and female principles constitute ethical
stability,
so in the
domain of the plastic arts there is
a corresponding "simultaneous combination of forms,
movement and
counter-movement or to put it more
naively
contrasting objects (chromatically: the use of fragmented colourcontrasts, as in Delaunay)". In the
work of art every force requires a complementary power to attain a state of

equilibrium.

Klee has taken us a long

way on the

path towards abstraction and generalizatron.

Coming back

some

concrete

to earth he gives

examples.

To

the

-^

-s*'-^t

"^
SPECIAL DOOR.

12

1932. Klee-Stiftung, Berne.

//

.,.^.1

TOWN WITH WATCHTOWERS.

1929. Klee-Stiftung. Berne.

OLD TOWN AND

BRIDGE.

1928. R. Doetsch-Benziger Collection. Basle.

experiences of a sailor of long ago in his

boat there corresponded the
little
vision of ancient

man; modern man on

the other hand, walking the deck of a

ship is familiar with his own movement,
that of the boat, the direction and
speed of the current, the rotation of
the earth, the course of the stars.
"Result: an agglomeration of movements in the universe with as its centre
myself and the steamer." Another
example: an apple-tree in blossom an

agglomeration
114

of

various

stages

of

growth. Third example: a man asleep

an agglomeration of functions united

in

repose.

these lines Klee reveals his secret

to us the mechanism of the image.
The apple-tree in blossom lives and
grows before our eyes here are "its
In

mounting sap, its trunk, a

cross-section of the trunk to show the
thickness of the wood, the flower and
roots, the

its

structure,

its

sexual functions, the

core and seeds".

All the operations which he describes

fruit,

and which are associated in artistic

creation
that is to say, the liberation
of the elements and their regrouping,
the dismembering and reconstruction
of the whole, 'plastic polyphony', the
conquest of repose by the equilibrium
of movements
all
these are of decisive importance for understanding
the construction of forms. "But that is
not art in its most exalted form. In its
most exalted form there is behind the
ambiguity a last mystery and at that
point the light of the intellect dies

away miserably."

It

is

thanks to this

element of mystery that art can have

such a powerful effect on us, that our
imagination can remind us of experiences which cheer and excite us more
than any conscious terrestrial or superterrestrial states, and that "symbols
comfort the spirit". Klee ends with an
enthusiastic and joyful appeal, with an
invitation toenjoy the possibility which
art offers us "of having a change of
point of view just as we have a change
of air".
15

^tt

AN
116

HABITUE.

1931. Klee-Stiftung, Berne.

The Bauhaus
Thus
to

1920,

in

come

when Gropius asked him

in Weimar,

to the Bauhaus

Klee had already written his Creative

which was being printed

Confession,

by Reiss of Berlin.
In
the Bauhaus, Walter Gropius
proposed to create a new corporation
of artists and artisans. Abolishing all
barriers between themselvesthey were

to collaborate

in

the construction of a
artistic and

new order which was both

ethical.

Architecture,

painting

were to form

sculpture
a

and

harmonious

unity.

RICH LAND.

Gropius succeeded in immediately

surrounding himself with collaborators
worthy of the task Feininger and
Oskar Schlemmer, Moholy-Nagy and
George Muche, the sculptor Gerhard
Marcks and the architect Meyer.
Paul Klee joined them in January 1920,
deserting his beloved Munich. Two
years later, Kandinsky arrived from
Moscow with his young wife.
The Bauhaus was certainly unlike
any other school. It aimed, as we have
seen,
to
rediscover the
harmony
between the various departments of
art
above all between the strictly
artistic activities and the handicrafts.

1931. Felix Klee Collection. Berne.

17

RESONANCE OF THE SOUTHERN FLORA.

1927.

The

traditional division between the

and applied arts was ignored. "Our
final aim, although it is still distant",
said the inaugural manifesto, "is the

personal theories and to their particu-

fine

lar dialectic.

unitary work of art, the Great Work,

which will do away with all distinctions
between monumental and decorative

work

Bauhaus was an
advanced school of form and as such
left its mark on a period of extremely
fruitful experiment; round about 1925
evolved a style which was everyit
where much admired and which bears
its name. There is no doubt that the
Bauhaus contributed greatly to the
evolution of both Klee's and Kandinsky 's thought, to the formation of their
118

of Picasso.
short essay published by Klee

reality,

the

in

produced by the Bauhaus in

extremely useful for under-

collection

1923

art."
In

However there is no such

break between Munich and Weimar in
Klee's work as Cubism produced in the

is

standing

Wege

his

art.

In

it- the

title

is

(Approaches
to the study of Nature) we once
more find the intimate tone of the
des Naturstudiums

Creative Confession.
artist the dialogue with
remains a sine qua non. The
artist is a man, himself nature and a
part of nature, within nature's space."
This axiom expresses a general and

"For the

nature

constant truth; what vary from tinne

to time are the methods of studying
nature, which is a necessary condition
of artistic creation. But one must not
let oneself be misled as to the real
importance of such innovations. "The
methods seem very new without

perhaps really being so."

Klee's

On

this point

judgment shows every

sign of

detailed examination of appearances".

"The

and the 'yo^'- "the artist and

attempted to establish
relationship
by the optico-physical
path through the layer of air which
lies between the
T and the 'you'."
his

'!'

subject,

The

positive aspect of this

that

it

aspect

the discovery of new roads, but on the

other hand the artist's knowledge of
the past must prevent him from "frantically seeking novelty at the expense

optical

What

of

things.

day in its relationship to the natural

world is that it is astudy, a "laboriously

MORE AND MORE

SIGNS.

"The

art

of

con-

templation, the art of revealing non-

out

made

and

impressions

neglected.

"One

by

images

was

must, therefore, with-

underestimating

phenomena,

characterizes the art of yester-

is

of the surface of objects", the negative

being seriously weighed: we must not

minimize the joy we experience from

of the natural".

method

has given us "excellent pictures

increased

carry

it

the

advances

knowledge of
further. "The

today is more than an official

photographer trained to the pitch of
perfection; he is more complicated,

artist of

1932. Klee-Stiftung. Berne.

119

*fer

CHURCH AND

CASTLE.

1929. Felix Klee Collection, Berne.

and greater in stature. He

a creature living on the earth, a
is
creature living at the centre of the
universe that is to say a creature on

more

rich

among other
Our knowledge

a star

stars."

of the individual
scope and depth and
does not stop at appearances.
know that there is more to it than the
external aspect. Man dissects the object

object grows

in

We

he cuts it open reveals its

"Experiences of this kind,
duly added together, permit the T

and

as

interior.

20

to deduce the interior of the object

from its exterior; this it does intuitively in so far as the

'I'

is

encour-

aged by optico-physical means to draw

from the exterior conclusions of an
affective nature which can intensify
the impression of the phenomenon to
the point of functional interiorization."
But there are other lines of approach
which lead to a 'humanization' of the
subject and bring the 'I' and the
subject into a relationship which goes
beyond optical foundations. "First of

OLD MAN CALCULATING.

there

the non-optical approach

roots in the earth,
which reaches the eye from below,
and secondly, the non-optical approach
of the
cosmic community, which
reaches us from above. If this type of
all

is

of our comnnon

study is repeated and intensive it leads

to a genuine experience."
Klee adds that the lower approach

1929.

concept but he elaborates it as follows:

"On the lower approach, which has its
centre of gravity at the centre of the
lie all the static problems which
might be defined in the words: 'Stand
up in spite of all the chances of falling.'
One is led to the upper paths by

earth,

one's aspirations to liberate oneself,

by swimming or flight, from the bonds

runs through the static zone and produces static forms, while the upper
approach runs through the dynamic

of the earth and so to attain

zone.

from that

This

is

somewhat obscure

liberty

full liberty,

through movement.

"All these paths

meet

in

the eye and

point, being translated into

121

form, lead to a synthesis of external

vision and internal contennplation.

"Through experiences acquired in

different
ways experiences

these

which he has transformed into creative

work the artist gives proof of the
degree of intimacy of his 'dialogue with

nature'.

"The further he progresses with

his

the creation of works which are

images of the handiwork of God".
In
the Padagogisches Skizzenbuch
(Pedagogical sketches), which appeared

in

in

Klee addresses himself

1924,

to his pupils.

It

is

more

a little scholastic

manual, which does not interest us

particularly in this context. Klee was

undoubtedly

good teacher. But

it

is

were

vision of nature and with meditation,

doubtful whether

the freer he is to organize groups of

abstract forms, which go beyond the

capable of understanding his doctrine.

schematic

and

the

achieve

new

natural

natural order of the

he creates a

arbitrary

work

work or he

order,
of art.

Then

participates

CLOISONNE.
122

and
the

In

all

his

pupils

number which the Swiss

Du devoted to Klee in

the special

periodical

October

1948,

one of

his

ex-pupils

extraordinary
knowledge of form, of the techniques

admits

that

"Klee's

1928. Siegfried Rosengart Collection. Lucerne.

1^1^^^
GENESIS OF THE PHYSIOGNOMY.

1929. Felix Klee Collection. Berne.

and colour and of their

had allowed him in a very
short tinne to connmunicate to his
pupils that power of the symbol which
unconsciously present in children
is
and "which in Klee was accurately
controlled
a system which has occupied creative artists ever since. Howthe most subtle and most
ever
subtly imagined formal elements, which
in Klee's case were certainly products
of his own mind, led his pupils to
hollow, untidy imitations,
Klee
can scarcely have avoided seeing this.
But he did not wish to admit that it
happened with his pupils. Although

on

of drawing

ordinarily

possibilities,

point he was impatient and even angry.

FLIGHT FROM ONESELF.

124

tolerant

man,

Excellent teacher though he was

own

field,

Klee had

little

this

in his

capacity for

educot/ng others. He completely lacked

the Socratic touch; indeed he hated it.
His
his

pupils'

own

work seems

creations.

ageless,

like

The true educator,

on the other hand, protects the

germinating seed and brings it to
maturity; but in the case of Klee's
pupils the first shoots were already
harvested to form the actual material
for their pictures. His pupils had come
to know their 'original state' but
they lacked the long-studied ability,

1931. Klee-Stiftung. Berne.

DOWNWARDS.

1932. Private collection, U.S.A.

amounting almost to scientific objecwhich their master possessed and

whichenabledhimtopassfrom intuition
to knowledge.
The pupils could extract material from the depths of their
tivity,

subconscious or unconscious, but the/

lacked the ability to connect it with

an

ability which
Klee pospurest form. For Klee was
not only a great innovator who strove
to see behind things, he was also

reality

sessed

in its

an exceptionally gifted

observer and

realist.

"Another of

his

powers

him to use the means of

it

plastic

allowed
expres-

sion as the actual content of a painting

-Klee

could only put at

disposal

Here

his

to

very

his

limited

starting-point was a

pupils'

degree.

know-

he gave to

ledge of graphology;

his

written or painted symbols new and

original overtones. In so doing he
never lapsed into producing anything
indefinite or ill-defined, because the

compositions was
nature and to his
own laws, which were not however
transmissible. So his pupils went astray
and lost their necessary link with the

execution

of

subject to his

his

own

world around them.

."
.

125

"~1

MIXED WEATHER.
26

1929. fe//x Klee Collection, Berne.

GROUP INTERLACED.
Line, Tonality, Colour

1930. Klee-Stiftung, Berne.

would have preferred to

deal

princi-

with those parts of the creative

process which take place in the unconscious; but to do so would be to
forget that the majority of his hearers
were more familiar with the content
of a work of art than with its formal
aspect. He would therefore discuss
questions of form. "I am going" he
said "to give you a glimpse into the
pally

"Pictures look at us", said Klee

famous

in

Jena in
January 1928 on the occasion of an
exhibition of his works. The theorist
in him had a powerful antagonist
the
lecture

given

at

mystic.

To

them

death

in

his

reconcile them,

to unite

common effort, was until his

most constant endeavour.

The Jena lecture is his 'discourse of

method'. In it, like Kandinsky, he deals
with the most abstract aspects of the
problems of creation. When it was
under the title
aroused deep interest.
Klee begins by explaining that he

published

in

On Modern

Art,

1945,

it

workshop."
There must be some ground com-

painter's

mon to both artists and public where

they can meet and the artist cease to
appear to them as a strange phenomenon. In fact, the artist is a being
who, like everyone else, has been
127

BETWEEN AUTUMN AND WINTER.

128

1932. Klee-Stiftung. Berne.

ATTACK BY THOSE COMING AFTER.

placed

being
else,

in

complex world without

and like everyone

consulted,

he must get along

He

in

it

as best

he

1933. Curt Valentin Collection,

this

New

York.

complex order, to the multiple

ramifications of the roots of a tree".

The

sap,

coming from below, pene-

from other people only

in this that he solves his problems
with his own special methods and
that by so doing he is sometimes,

trates into the artist and reaches his

perhaps, happier than the non-creative

the world and in life to be able to

arrange in an orderly way phenomena
and experiences.
should like to

what he has seen into his work; his

work, like the crown of the tree,
expands and is visible in time and
space. No one would ever think of
demanding that a tree should grow a
crown exactly like its root. Different
functions assume different forms. But
people would like to forbid the artist

compare

to

can.

person,

differs

who

never succeeds

in

perform-

ing a truly creative, liberating action.

"Let us take an artist" he goes on,

"who

is

sufficiently well

'orientated'

in

this

orientation

among the

things of the natural world and of

life.

He is like the trunk of the tree.

Under the pressure and urgency of

eye.

this

powerful

upsurge

he

transmits

depart from his model; if he

does so, he is accused of incompetence
129

TABLE OF

COLOUR

(IN

GREY MAJOR).

1930 Klee-Stiftung. Berne.

or of deliberate falsification. But like

the tree, he is merely collecting and
transmitting forces which have come
from the depths. He occupies a very
modest position. He is not himself the
beauty of the crown; it has merely
passed through him.

Klee goes on to discuss the dimensions

130

FIGTREE.

In
the world of art,
born again but is of necessity
deformed, since it must submit to the
specific dimensions of the plastic work
of art. These dimensions are, in the
first place, more or less limited formal
factors such as the line, light and shade,
and colour. The line is the most simple

of a

picture.

nature

is

1929.

element

F.

C.

Schong Collection.

of

measurement

all;

New

York.

relates

only

to

Tone value

or, as

it is

it

also called, chiaroscuro, the numerous

gradations between black and white
is

somewhat

different. In this case

we

are dealing with weight. A tone is

charged with a greater or less amount
of white or black energy.

The

third

13

element is the colours. Their nature

cannot be understood either in ternns
of measurennent or weight. If one compares two surfaces, the one pure yellow
and the other pure red, of the same
area and of equal luminosity, there is

between them which

we describe by the words 'yellow' and
'red'. Colours are 'qualities'. These
still

a difference

and
tions.

elements dimension, weight

have certain interrelaquality

formal

Colour

is

secondly, weight,

primarily

because

it

quality,

has not

only a chromatic value but also a

degree of luminosity, and thirdly,
dimension, because it has its limits, its
extension. Tone value is, first and foremost, weight, but it is also dimensional
in its extension and limitation. The line
is

purely dimensional.
This leads us to the

first

type of

construction using the three categories

enumerated above. It
here that the centre of gravity of

of elements

is

all

our conscious work lies. If one is a

master of the use of the medium one

creates structures which havethe

power

of attaining other and vaster dimen-

But

sions.
field

if

of form

one's orientation
is

in

the

inadequate, then the

greatest and most important aspects of

content cannot be attained, and the

most exquisite qualities of soul cannot
prevent a

When

failure.

work in progress takes

shape under our eyes we are tempted
to give it, by association, a material
interpretation. For any assemblage of
forms in a complex structure may, with
some imagination, be compared to
things

the

we know from

associative qualities

in

nature. These

the

work

are

the origin of the heated misunderstandings between the artist and the public.
Whereas the artist is entirely con-

cerned to group the formal elements

precisely that each seems to fit
inevitably into place, the uninstructed
person looking over the painter's
shoulder says the terrible words:
so

'But that isn't a bit like Uncle.'

artist,

if

his

The

nerves are strong, says to

r-./.

LATE.

32

1929.

F.

C.

Schang Collection.

New

York.

AU*

HEAVILY PREGNANT.

1934.

himself:

"Uncle or no uncle,

on with

my

construction.

must get
This

new

perhaps a little too heavy it

puts too much weight on the left.
must put a counterweight on the
right to redress the balance."
To the dimensions corresponding to the elementary plastic modes
line, tonality, colour
there is added,
through the constructive combination
of these elements, the dimension of
the organized form {Gestalt) or, if you
like, the dimension of the object. To
these dimensions yet another must be
added; it is connected with 'content'.
"Certain relationships in the dimenstone

is

sions of lines", Klee goes on to explain,

'

'the juxtaposition of certain tonalities,

harmonies of colour, bring

about certain well-defined and quite
certain

individual types of expression." For

example, sharp zigzag movements set
against a more horizontal line produce
the effect of emotional contrast. "In
the realm of tone value, contrasting
expressions are obtained by the very

extensive employment of all the tones

(which exblack to white
and
inspiration
presses force, full

from

expiration) or by the employment of

the bright upper register of the scale
of tones or the employment of the
133

^' -1-

ILLUMINATED LEAF.

1929. Klee-Stiftung. Berne.

lower register, which is deep and

sombre." As for the possible variations
of content produced by colour combinations, they are innumerable.

Each organization of form, each comown constructive

its
has
bination
expression,

own
134

face,

each

its

organized form

its

own physiognomy. That

i-W^^ggp^

THE TWINS' PLACE.

is
why pictures look at us, joyfully
or severely, intense or relaxed, in
comforting or forbidding mood, in

sorrow or

smiling.

But that is not all. These organized

forms have their special 'attitude' or
'pose', which is the result of the way
in which the various groups of elements

1929. Klee-Stiftung, Berne.

have been set

in

motion.

has a tranquil, stable pose

If

a picture

and looks

at

because the aim has

been to build not upwards but horizontally, or else, if we are dealing with
its

ease, that

a construction

is

in

element
systematic manner.
vertical

height, to use the

in

visible

and

35

which

completely terrestrial. These

is

animated, dynamic attitudes lead us on

to the dimension of style. At this point

Romanticism emerges

in

a peculiarly

emotional form. This form of expression tries to soar higher and higher, to
triumph more and more over the
weight and bondage of terrestrial

Thus one arrives at a form of

Romanticism which merges with the
universe. The static and dynamic parts
of the mechanism of forms, therefore,

things.

very

coincide

with

accurately

between

distinction

classical

the
and

romantic.

By this time the form arranged by

the artist has gone through so many
different and important dimensions
that one can no longer
struction'.

We

call

can use a

overtones: 'a composition'.

Klee then attempts to show
artist

a 'con-

it

word

rich in

how

the

comes to produce apparently

deformations
of
natural
first
reason is that he
does not attribute to these forms the
decisive importance which the 'realists'
give them. He does not see in these
finished, completed forms the essence
of the creative process of nature. He is
perhaps, without being clearly aware

arbitrary

forms.

WARNING.

1935. Klee-Stiftung. Berne.

of

is

sometimes

less

rigid

and is transported into an intermediary world like water or the

atmosphere

where

(as

in

swimming

or gliding) there are no longer any

dominating

verticals.

It

unlike the world of the

136

is

world

first attitude.

The deeper

philosopher.

vision

penetrates

more

inevitably he

the
This 'pose'

it,

His

image

into

things,

his

the

faced not with

is

nature but
with creation's only essential image
'genesis'. Looking forward into the
future as he had looked back into
the past and attributing duration to the
process of genesis, he conceives the
daring idea that the process of creation
can today hardly be complete. He goes

MONUMENT

of

perfected

IN FERTILE

COUNTRY.

1929.

Klee-Stiftung, Berne.

iw^aiwawi,.

..

-Vi,;^jt;t

further.

He

says to himself that,

if

we

confine ourselves to the world below,

then this world once looked quite

one day look

But then he looks
beyond this world, and thinks there
are perhaps other quite different
forms on other stars. This ability to
move about on the paths of creation
good training for the artist it
is
teaches him to be more mobile, more
free to choose the paths traced by his
and

different

will

again.

different

creative activity.

A mere

glance

show

suffices to

in

us

fantastic images did

the microscope

what would seem

we

not

know how

were revealed to us. Some

people, coming across a reproduction

they
like

that

in

an

would exclaim

in

avant-garde

anger:

review,

"Are these

natural forms? This is merely bad

drawing." (This was a piece of malice
on Klee's part, for some critics
had employed exactly these terms
when condemning his work.) To the
question whether the artist must

ON AND
38

IN

THE LAKE.

1934. Klee-Stiftung, Berne.

DOUBLE

FACE.

1933. Felix Klee Collection, Berne.

139

"W'^'^mmm^mm^mm

ACROBAT.
140

1930. Felix Klee Collection. Berne.

-^'f^'^m^

AND

SHALL SAY.

1934. Klee Stiftung, Berne

therefore occupy himself with microscop/ and palaeontology, Klee replies:

"Only for the sake of making comparisons, only in the sense of mobility,
.

only

in

the sense of liberty."

must go from type to prototype.

The true

One
.

those with a vocation,

are the ones who strive to approach
artists,

the secret depths where the prime

law fosters development and meta-

morphoses. What artist would not

wish to dwell where the central
factor of all temporal and spatial movement what is known as the brain or
determines all
creation
heart
of
functions ? in the very heart of nature,

141

GENTLE DRUMROLL.

at

the source of

secret key to

all

all
is

creation

kept?

where the

But there is no one rule everyone

must go where his heart leads him.
Thus the Impressionists had the right
to stick

142

closely

to the externals of

1938. Klee-Stiftung, Berne.

nature, of daily

life

to stay

at

ground

so to speak. But as for us, our

hearts force us into the depths.
level,

But everything the artist brings

back from his descents into these deep
be
called
they
waters whether

WORLD HARBOUR

1933. Felix Klee Collection, Berne.

143

dreams, ideas or fantasies, can only

be taken seriously if, in the course
of the organization of the work, they
are completely and adequately fused,
in terms of plastic art. Then these
curiosities become realities, the realities of art, which add something to
Klee stresses the phrase about
life.
'adequacy in terms of plastic art'. That
what permits us to decide whether

is

we
not

are dealing with

and

permits

us

works of
to

art or
judge their

quality.

Ours is an agitated and confused age

but one can see in the artists of today
an effort to obtain purity in the modes
of expression

rigour

in

in

the plastic

their handling.

arts,

and

Klee refers

to "the legend of the childishness of

my drawings", which is due to his
attempt to combine the representation
of an object or a man with the application of the pure, linear element.

An

attempt at realist representation would

have led to such a bewildering conit would have been
impossible to speak of purity of modes

fusion of lines that

CLOUD ABOVE
144

TREES.

1934. Klee-Stiftung, Berne.

HOVERING (ABOUT TO TAKE

OFF). 1930. Klee-Stiftung, Berne.

145

of expression. Besides, Klee does not

wish to show nnan as he is but as he
might be. "Throughout the whole
field of plastic techniques one must
avoid contanninating the purity of
technique even when dealing with

people are not yet on our

side.

are seeking a people and have

But

We

The

artist

is

among men,

isolated

of indifference;

"Sometimes dream of a work on a

vast scale which would embrace the
whole field of the elements of art,

to face with nature, to which his

subject-matter, content and style", he

is

adds.

That

dream, but

will
it

is

remain a
good to imagine the
certainly

worse

tied

lecture

his

in

objects,

Universe.

still

lack

supreme power;

MORE WILL
146

BE

for the

MARCHING SOON.

of

be

relation
at

called

Rights

relation to

We

in

or

Klee's view

true place only

might

Declaration

he concludes, "we must not

precipitate anything but let it ripen.
Finally,

in

when face
work
by numerous bonds. The Jena

he finds

not

possibility.

We

have
beginning at the Bauhaus.
begun with a community to which we
can do no more."
give all we have.
the object sometimes of hostility

colours.

we

made

of the

human

sort

of

Artist,

society, but

to the society of natural

the

very

heart

1934. Klee-Stiftung. Berne

of

the

ROUGHHEWN

HEAD.

1935.

F.

C.

Schang

Collection.

New

York.

47

2^^53^
EXPRESSIVE LYRE.
148

1935. K/ee-St/ftung. Berne.

HALL OF SINGERS.

1930. Private Collection, Berne.

K. K. Gesellschaft

saw each other every

day, and in the

together with their wives,
met in Klee's house or at the theatre.
Kandinsky frequently asked Klee to go
to the cinema with him but only the
name of Chaplin enticed Klee in.
Apparently he was not greatly amused.
At Weimar, Klee to begin with still
wore the slight fringe of beard which,
according to Leopold Zahn, the author
of the first small monograph on the

evening,

When,

in

November

who was

1925,

Otto

Ralfs,

an enthusiastic admirer of

both Klee and Kandinsky, proposed

the foundation of the K. K. Gesellschaft,

which set

itself

obtaining for

its

the modest aim of

members, for a small

monthly payment, water-colours and

paintings by the two artists, Klee was
living in a villa in the upper part of
Weimar while Kandinsky had a little
furnished flat of two rooms and a
kitchen in the old town. But their
studios were next door to each other
in the Bauhaus. As in Munich, where
they had lived in the same street, they

made him look like a figure

Burial of the Count d'Orgaz.
The
from
Rolf BiJrgi, who visited him along
with his mother, tells us that the flat
was pleasant and airy, with antique
furniture. Water-colours hung on the
painter,

149

1 1^

^mW

CONFUSED

walls.

SIESTA. 1934. Klee-Stiftung, Berne.

black cat, which was the terror

Kandinsky, sat enthroned on

the sofa. After dinner, Klee took his

of Frau

and, accompanied by his wife,

began to play Bach and Mozart. Next
day they went to visit his studio. As
they passed the theatre where Goethe
had played the part of Orestes in
iphigenia, Klee amused them by mimicking some of Goethe's famous poses;
this was one of his familiar jokes.
The studio made a great impression
on young Burgi, who describes it
as follows: "It was like an alchemist's

violin

50

laboratory.

In

the middle of

it

there

were various easels and a chair. He was

working simultaneously on several
paintings.

He spoke

of his

paintings

had to do it
with great simplicity:
"
like this so that the birds could sing.'
in
one of his water-colours
In fact
'I

dated

1922,

Modern

now

Art,

in

New

the Museum of
York, he had

invented a 'twittering machine', Die

Zwitschermoschine (Cat. 40). Although

was not able to acquire the
Zwitschermoschine, Frau Burgi insisted
on acquiring The Bird Caller (page 69),

she

TOWARDS THE MOUNTAINS.

1934. Klee-Stiftung. Berne.

151

work,

delicious

tones.

all

in

beak it
the art dealer, Flechtheim,
a

well-known Berlin
Dessau,

In

transparent

the bird with its long pointed

was not difficult to recognize

In

nnoved

in

who owned

gallery.

where the Bauhaus

two artists lived

1926, the

in the two wings of a small house built

by Gropius. Klee had seven rooms;
Kandinsky had only four, since he had

no children. His part of the house was

was able to

finished first so that he

offer

Klee hospitality for

some

time.

Dessau was certainly not a gracious

residential city. When Gropius called
a meeting of the professors of the
Weimar Bauhaus to discuss with the
Burgermeister of Dessau the conditions
on which the new school would be
built, their wives discovered a stretch
of forest on the outskirts of the city
and suggested to their husbands that
they should advise the municipality,
which did not know where to house
the professors, to appropriate a piece
of virgin land.

Kandinsky and Klee took a certain

amount for their own small gardens,

which were not separated in any way.
But

although

the

artists

and

their

were so closely united, the

gardens seemed to be divided by an

families

invisible fence. Klee

never set foot in

garden without being
invited; Kandinsky never set foot in
Klee's. When they were busy in the
garden they behaved as if they were
concealed from each other by the
invisible fence
a mode of behaviour
which greatly surprised Nina Kandinsky
who watched the scene from her
balcony. Nina Kandinsky was a Russian
Kandinsky's

52

FRUIT.

1930. Private Collection, Berne.

153

which for Kandinsky

of these years,

were the most

and for

exciting

of

most

the

Klee

his

fertile.

life

She

remembered the parties in Klee's

house and the lively evenings in her
own when Klee was there with his
wife and the other professors. One
evening, when there was dancing, Klee
turned up with a turban which brought
out his Oriental looks. It seemed asif
the
all his life he had worn a turban
head-dress most suited to wizards and

maharajas.

The more intimate musical evenings

were all held at the Klees' and were
very simple in the old German style.
On these occasions Klee was purely a
musician, intent on Bach, Beethoven,
Handel, Haydn and Mozart. He played
almost every evening after supper with
his wife. Then in bed he read his
French and Greek authors. But when
he was possessed by music- it was
impossible to talk to him about poetry
or painting. His son,
advantage of this fact.

The two

EMIGRATING.

1933. Klee-Stiftung, Berne.

from Moscow. She had

lived

through

the Revolution and this extraordinarily

scrupulous sense of individual property
disturbed her deeply. But in fact the
two painters were behaving as if they
were painting side by side, each intent

on

his own work.

Nina Kandinsky has often spoken

154

families

Felix,

often

took

spent the

evening together. In good weather

they saw each other rather less because
the Kandinskys liked to go cycling in
the shade of the trees. Klee himself
preferred to walk; he said that on foot
one could observe things better.
In summerthetwo families separated
for the holidays. In 1924 Klee was in
Sicily;

in

1926

Elba,

Florence,

1927

and

Brittany

in

1928

and

1928 the K.

Italy

Pisa

he

was

Corsica.
K.

again,

visiting

and Ravenna.
In

in

In

France,

December

Gesellschaft provided

money to pay for a trip to Egypt

where he stayed for a month.

the

BARK CULTURE.

'

1935. Felix Klee Collection, Berne.

155

Egypt the Egypt of

he did not like. It
did not correspond to what he had
imagined. Egypt he found only in the
pure geometric tracery of its monuments, in the flow of its sand and
water, in the pale light of its sky
It
was to
saturated with colour.
remain one of the deep underlying

But the Spring the two painters

celebrated together. They would go
in an open carriage to Worlitzpark.

themes of Klee's sensibility one of

which he had had a presentiment
(6/ue Mountain, 1919). Later he was to

together with the men opposite them.

Klee kept thinking of Goethe, who
had so often driven this way.
One of the great events of these
years was in 1928, when Kandinsky,

Picturesque

mosques and suks

write to
scape

Lily:

"I

[Monument

am
in

1929] rather like the

painting a land-

a Fertile

Land,

view from the top

the Valley of the Kings

looking towards the orchard lands."
But he did not only skim over these
with their network of
flat
fields
vertical and horizontal parallels (Higiiway and Byways, 1929); through the
mouths of the tombs, he slipped into a
subterranean world peopled by spirits,
by which he would be haunted to the
of the

end of

cliffs

his

in

life.

It

was a long road

lined with lilacs; the

horses' pace was slow and the air mild

and scented. For Nina Kandinsky the

whole poetry of life was in that
drive, which perhaps reminded her of

Chekhov's

Russia.

assisted by Felix Klee,

experiment

staging

156

made

his first

opera

Hartmann.
his
friend
of
Kandinsky had designed the scenes,
which were all abstract and geometric
and thus went clean against the character of the music which was undeniably Impressionistic. But although
pictures

^'=^Fv^

K.

ladies sat

with
Mussorgsky's Pictures in on Exhibition,
which Mussorgsky had composed in
1874, drawing his inspiration from the
in

Y:^

HARBOUR AT

The two

1939. Klee-Stiftung. Berne.

V'..

.'.!**.*' !* *

^^^:

! ..V, *'*t***vv."iWi;

*4f !<*#

'.*.\*.'.* *.* i*.*.'

t (1

EMACHT.

1932. Felix Klee Collection, Berne.

he did violence to the music in one

in another he thereby liberated
it, since to have stuck to Impressionist
scenography would inevitably have
spoiled the effect of the music. But
this was clearly not the only reason
for Klee's enthusiasm. Kandinsky had
made it possible for him, as it were, to
see music. But had not Klee himself
already attempted to transcribe it, to
translate it into line, in his drawings in
the year 1927? In the Hall of Singers
sense,

from the Burgi

of

his

collection, his

journeys to

Sicily

memories

and

Egypt

enabled him to produce work as light

and airy as a Mozart aria.
In December 1932, Kandinsky, who
was worried by the political events in
Germany, decided to leave Dessau for
good although he had applied for and
obtained German nationality. Klee

had left a year before, preferring

as he said in a moment of temper
the more modest professors of the

57

DRAWING FOR
158

"PIERETTE".

1937. Klee-Stiftung. Berne.

DRAWING FOR ITINERANT

Academy at

Dusseldorf, to which he had

been appointed, to the geniuses of the
Bauhaus. Since he was unable to find a
flat in Dusseldorf, his life was divided
between the two towns.

"Wedined

in

silence at Paul Klee's",

CIRCUS.

1937. Private Collection, U.S.A.

a producer
he had studied production at the Bauhaus was away for
as

professional

reasons.

We

sat

there,

the three of us alone, round the table.

The

pain of separation after so

years of

many

together caught at our

left
was less upset when

life

Nina Kandinsky

throats.

fallen

The two
Kandinsky.
with
artists had been brought together by
life and by their careers. Daily contact

ill

relates. "His wife had

and had been taken to hospital

few days previously. Felix, who was

beginning to have considerable success

Russia

159

mK A>V>:<
THE

LITTLE PRUSSIAN. 1938.

and a carefully regulated intimacy on

either side had united them. But. can
one go on to say that this exemplary
friendship corresponded to an affinity
of mind and that the bonds between
them are to be found in their work?
Pierre Volboudt has the following

comment
160

to make:

Klee-Stiftung, Berne.

"They were separated by a fundaantinomy which their art

mental

fundamentally
different concept of the world. In the
one it was analytic and lost itself in a
confusion of meanings, allusions and
symbols. In the other it was synthetic,
expansive and source of radiation.
apart

pointed

to

X
:'At^

7t-

^\

/\

!\

ct.

GARDEN GATE

M. 1932.

R.

Doetsch-benzigr Collection, Basle.

"For Klee art was always cast 'in the

image of creation'; but this image is a
parody of reality a poetic travesty.

which are fluid, mobile

and unresolved. In order that it may
stalk and surprise nature in its various

being reduced to
absurdity and deformed in order to
make of it something else. Everything

metamorphoses the human disguises

nature. The artist rummages
in Creation's property box. There is

is ambiguous, masked behind the outward appearance of animal or plant, of

nothing which does not serve him,

nothing which does not come into his

It

is

perpetually

faceless powers,

itself in

161

CHILDREN'S PLAYGROUND.

1937.

art and its oldest remnants

such as inscriptions, mosaics, Assyrian
cracked pottery, imaginary
tablets,

with Creation and its works. Man is

absent from it. One might even wonder

ideograms,

accordance with
the painter's wish, it is in order to
educate him by means of an askesis,
which is perhaps derived from ancient
the only trace of the past in the
rites
master of absolute art and which is
intended to teach him to dispense

game

graffiti;

nature

with

its

various processes and chance effects

its striations, strata and maculations,
the slow wear of time which in the
thinnest fragment of rock imitates the
work of the human hand. The hand,
in its turn, Klee said, must be 'the

instrument of a distant past'.

"Kandinsky's work, on the other
hand,

62

is

outside of time, for

it

dispenses

whether

it

was made for him.

destined for him,

If

it

is

in

with appearances.
"Kandinsky's work does not relate
anything, nor does it evoke anything.

OH! BUT OH!

1937, Private Collect ^ci, Berne.

63

K lee's Marcher), on the contrary, are

merely the setting for an event and
often that event itself. Plants and
geonnetry, even, appear on the stage
and have their part to play. Space
progresses in planes, unrolls in vague
undulates and climbs. A
parallels,
quivering sensibility seems to run
through his line and animate even

which has nothing to do with the one

in which we live.
"Klee was suspicious of the effects
of too prolonged a state of consciousness. He had to keep to that interwhere everything
realm
mediary
changes and changes itself, ramifies
infinitely into equivocation and bifurcates into inextricability. He was

abstraction.

careful

"In

one

Kandinsky's

strict

formations

finds only a formal sensibility.

To

the end he retained a power which

was always to hand. His

tions

were to

imagination,

be

final

festivals

caprices

of

producof the

invention

which were at once extremely free

and extremely controlled.
"His work arose outside anything
that exists. Because of this haughty
rejection of all that is, it does not belong
to any world. It is a world of its own,

DARING.
64

not to lose anything

spelt out

no

no

sign. In

detail,

his last

comes back to the

his

great hasty,

his

eyes

no unevenness,

works everything
He draws only

sign.

summary marks,

his

which are the

vocabulary of those obscure regions
where the occult veils the visible and
allegorical

skeletons,

reveals only the ghost of things; it is

the enigma which baffles all combinations for the painter has, perhaps
the
secret
designedly,
scrambled

cipher."

1932. Klee-Stiftung. Berne.

GARDEN RHYTHM.

l932. Felix Klee Collection, Berne.

large

Crystalline Painting

large surfaces

We

to say, but relatively modest compared

with those of Picasso or Matisse. His
last work, which was found after his

have already said that, in spite of

the great revelation of Kairouan, Klee
preferred water-colour and certain
alchemies of his own to oils. Even
during the Bauhaus period, which is
considered the happiest of his life and
career, his
sion.

The

works are

small in dinnen-

Botonical Theatre begun

in

1924 and finished only ten years later,

was considered a large-scale

which

work measures

only 191"

26.". It

was

only after his return to Berne, when

he had a presentiment of death, that
Klee dared to face the challenge of

for him, that

is

death, was barely sketched on a large

sheet of paper and was not more than
five

by

feet

In spite

disposal

over three

just

feet.

of the vast studios put at his

in

Dusseldorf,

Weimar,

Dessau

was

he

still

and

cabinet

painter.
In almost all the works he painted
between 1920 and 1923 the graphic
element predominates.

Klee,

who drew

equally well with

either hand, had trained his hands to an

65

MONOLOGUE OF A
166

KITTEN.

1938.

Felix Klee Collection, Berne.

SCENE WITH

BIRDS. 1937. Klee-Stiftung, Berne.

extraordinary degree indeed he believed that one of the principal aims of

artistic education was to develop great
manual skill. As an inevitable result,
his hands drew automatically, independently of his will, and would have
become the blind instrument of his
feelings had his reason not intervened
at a certain point and given meaning
to the creative act.
Klee's researches in the field of
form are always accurate and careful.
He could explain his pictures to his

pupils as

if

(their content and

poetic

they were equations.

Yet Klee does not fall into formalism.
On the contrary, he was so closely
bound up with reality that one of his
most penetrating interpreters, Georg
Schmidt, has described him as "the
most realistic painter of the twentieth
feeling

apart)

century".
Will Grohmann has classified the
works of the period under discussion
as follows: "There are those which
have their place at the centre of
167

-J>t!'**-

/ ;>-

y^->r-r

^i:c^.,v,v4,.y V

POLYPHONY.
168

1932.

Emanuel Hoffman-Stiftung, Kunstmuseum,

Basle.

his

on

and

activity

the

which

those

lie

the former,
Klee's attitude to the universe finds
periphery.

symbolical

In

expression.

phenomenon

The

resists analysis.

pictorial

One

only give a partial explanation of

can

by
with other
works or by tracing the course of
the artist's development. One cannot
separate subject or theme from the act
of genesis or from its formal development. Taken as a whole, these works

comparing the

pictures

are remote from nature,

at

all

it

applicable.

One

if

that

term

is

can hardly talk of

abstraction. For Klee

it

is

less a

ques-

tion of the subject's existence than of

its

nature.

We

himself does

might

call

them

as

he

crystalline.

"In an intermediary group, form and

sense emerge from interwoven elements and formal signs, which have a
certain depth of meaning but

do not

attain to the rank of symbols. In the

peripheral

those

category

pictures

fleeting

study

Nature or from

we must

which
of
life

deal

place

with

phenomena from
and which have,

as

a starting-point, a given situation, not

an internal image. Klee always sees

the perspective of the

the entire range of formal
creative possibilities. Thus the

things

in

totality,

and
concept of totality applies to

all

his

work.
"This classification holds good for a
period often years; but in Dessau the
paintings in the third group are already

beginningtobesuperseded. They might

be said to fall into the second category.
The personal element, which had
never had more than a relative
importance, disappears and is replaced
69

by a kind of detachment which projects

a background of general truth the

on

all existence. The

between the categories

interest Klee felt in

dividing lines

become more and more

They now refer to a variation
execution

or

of values.

we

In

indistinct.
in

method

and not to a scale

the peripheral category

fmd masterpieces. They are

also

merely different, just

less great
the autobiographical works of the
great poets are different from the rest
not

as

but

are

Where

of their

spirit.

the artist ceases to explore

the depths
different

picture

spirit

still

its

we

find

compensations in
which give the

powers,
true value."

But to whichever group the work

the artist always proceeds

belongs,

POND WITH SWANS.

170

musician "who writes note after

note and passing from motive to
theme, from one theme to another,
develops both".
The values of the artist's sensibility
are translated into tonal values; they
group themselves into harmonies,
grow into themes, develop as variations, swell into crescendos, branch
out into parallel, rising rhythms,
like a

vibrate

high notes.

in

When
one of
saying:

was

he
his

complimented

on

works,

"The

Klee parried by
miracle of this little

entirely due to the fact that

painted it had
the brush with which
not one more nor less than
three hairs
needed." Certainly at this period
Klee worked as much with the pen as

painting

is

1937. Mrs. John Rockefeller,

New

York.

15?%
ANIMALS

IN

THE PADDOCK.

1938.

with the brush. His pictures are often

simple coloured designs, either figurative or abstract. The Chinese were his
models whether he was using horizontal strokes as in A Leaf from the
Town Records (page 106), or an undulating line, as in Untamed Waters (page
198), or a hooked line as in Little Picture
of Cubes, 1925 (page 81). At other
times there is the incisive line of the
etchings Seven Blossoms, 1926. French
Divisionism is reduced to a game of
draughtsmanship severely linear in
Ad Parnassum (Cat. 97) and fantastically
geometrical in Barbarian Captain (page
8 ). In Picture of a Park (page 203), the
colour seems to leap out from the gay
whirl of the paint. Finally the famous
'embroideries', inspired by Oriental

F.

C.

Schang Collection,

New

York.

carpets, are graphic compositions, as

are obviously the ideograms and the

'signs'

which

mark the

artist's

last

period.
It

was only

at

Germany

the end of

his

long

mastered
the problem of colour, he returned to
the problem of materials, which he
had faced and successfully solved in the
'magic squares' of the Weimar days.
The supreme beauty of the 'squares'
is due, in fact, to the austere density
of the pigments and the wonderful
resonance of the harmonies, which
contrast with the mathematical clarity
of the design. The latter may be immobile, as in Table of Colour in Grey
Major (page 30) in the Klee Foundation
or shot with light, the source of all
stay

in

that, having

171

FREE BUT SECURELY HELD.

movement,

1930.

F.

C.

Schang

Blossoming (Cat. 109).

in many of his
merely an opaque background
as in

Klee's colour, which

works is
on which

his subject

dered, and

in

is

graphically ren-

others has the limpid

of glass or a brilliant

transparency
gleaming quality, in the 'magic squares'
is a noble medium. So too it was in the
1938 pastels. Klee's mysticism and
sensuality fuse perfectly in these sub172

Collection,

New

York.

lime abstract harmonies, which have

had such a great influence on modern

painting. It is in the 'magic squares'
that Klee reveals himself as one of the

thus
Kairouan
(the first example is dated 1922) the
proud statement he made there:
"I and colour are one." That is to say
he rediscovered that poetry in the
painters

greatest

justifying

LAGOON

eight

of

his

time,

years after

CITY. 1932. Private

Collection, E>er

i
]

mummmmmff
1

.1

Ijll(<|ili

^:f'

mmnmm

fe

.m w iwnmim i^nt
ii

ii

ACROBATS EXERCISING.
1938. Felix Klee Collection. Berne.

which had so moved

Pompeii during his first stay in
Italy. "They seem to have been painted
and discovered specially for me",
he had said of the Pompeian frescoes.
In
those cases v\/here the 'magic
squares' do not give the physical
sensation of fresco work, they have
the intensity of coloured glass, the
gaiety of enamels, the jewelled lumiartist's materials

him

at

nosity of a mosaic.

The works
174

of the period 930 to 933,

1

on the other hand, recall as far as the

media employed are concerned the

he obtained at the beginning of

career with the famous 'sous-

effects
his

verres'.

Examples are Nekropolis (Cat.

92) and The

in

Man

of the Future (Cat. 104),

which some people claimed to see

the man with the swastika. In spite of

the power of their drawing, these
works make their impression through
the way in which the pigment is applied
by nervous strokes of the palette knife.

SHIPWRECKED.
1938. Klee-Stiftung, Berne.

Young Tree (1932), the buds are

in relief; the contrast with
the light arabesque of the tree gives a
feeling of imminent, magic vitality.
In a landscape from nature, the pink
and violet Trees in October (Cat. 94),
the tufts of the trees are obtained
by thick brushwork; the results remind one of the technique so much
discussed today in 'tachiste' and 'fluid'
In

painted

painting.

Klee looks upon

his

sheet of paper

as

a stage

setting for a spectacle

inspired by nature or a purely imagin-

ary entertainment. But there can be

no play without characters, and in

Klee the characters are varied and

In this essentially magic

numerous.

production the characters may also be

objects which the artist distributes in
space and humanizes, as he did with
fish when he was a child. His
characters take him back to the theatre
and he did indeed paint many scenes

the

175

MODEL OF A FLOWER
176

VASE.

1930.

Herman Rupf

Collection, Berne.

OPEN.

1933. Felix Klee Collection, Berne.

and characters either tragic or grotesque from theatre and circus in

Weimar. Sometimes the light comes

from within; sometimes it comes from

without like lamplight. Oftener it
comes from both directions at once as
Ventriloquist

in

Man

sliouting

in

E>og (Cat. 46).

In

the thirteen years which concern

us here, nature plays a great part in

Klee's

work.

He

stages

enchanted

impromptus or humoresques often

both together. As we have seen he
may choose the disguise of a Chinese
decor as in View of a Mountain Sanctuary.
From this time on however the artist
more and more interested in the
is
problems of space and form which took
him further and further away from the
images of the external world. Yet both
form and space are conceived poetically
and sometimes symbolically

as

well.

177

OUTBURST OF

FEAR.

Reduplication of form gives us Hanging

Dying Plants (Cat. 41),

Fruits (Cat. 34),

Dream

City, 1921, and so on. Other

forms seemed to be directly generated
by space flying forms like Extended
Surfaces, flying and symbolical forms
like Twins (Cat. 83) and Diane, 1931.
Space also gives rise to a play with
constructions sometimes purely in
terms of perspective as in Perspective
of a Roonn vv/'tfi Inmates (Cat. 33), sometimes with a metaphysical flavour as in
Uncomposed Object in Space (Cat. 75).

178

1939. Klee-Stiftung, berne.

Space generates abstract rhythms as

in
the 'magic squares' and in the
pictures painted after his trip to Egypt
such as Individualistic Measurement of
the Beds (Cat. 93), The Sun sweeps the
Plain (Cat. 74), or in the masterpiece
of the series Highway and Byways which
beautifully sums up the artist's re-

searches into line and colour.

Lastly, we must consider the graphic

and ideographic forms, the forms and

characters which give a foretaste of
the artist's last period, when he was

SUCCESSFUL INCANTATION.

1937. Rosengart Collea.on. Lucerne.

179

again

Islam

partly

owing to

heredity,

his

partly because of a peculiar

inclination

towards

work

Klee's

by

attracted

strongly

once

BARBARIAN CAPTAIN.

pi ritual

it.

by

astonishes

the

themes and techniques,

revelation of a universe which

variety of

its

by its
otherwise only poetry and music have
touched, by its sensibility and fantasy.
Klee's
musical.

fantasy

But

beyond

is

it

is

qualities of Klee's

upon

themselves

modern

whom

artists,

work which

force

attention

large

drawn

have

resources.

doubt

the purely plastic

the

all

of

number of

upon

its

rich

One need mention

only

two of the most genuine and original

among them Wolds and de Stael, both
of them dead before their time. The
roots of their work lie in Klee's
:

achievement.

ORGELBERG.
80

1932

Felix Klee Collection, Berne.

1934. Private Collection, Berne.

->

^y^ys^.^^K

-M

^
'i^'

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.ir

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Cl//g

ARCHITECTURE
182

IN RUINS. 1938. Klee-Stiftung, Berne.

d'O

a 0^'

FALL. 1938.

Klee-Stiftung, Berne.

Return to Berne

ances

who were

painting.

One

could write ten books on Klee

with

and
publish ten entirely different volumes

of

entirely

reproductions.

'Klee'
its

is

texts

different

as vast as

The phenomenon
it is complex
and

"We

Grohmann

at

continues,

his

in

the

right

"for

wanted to see his drawings, a lot of his

drawings which was a thing no one
ever asked for. No one wanted to
exhibit them and he did not want to

they
as he said
sell them, because
formed part of his equipment. To him

Grohmann,

they were, so to speak, archives of

friend and biographer, Will

"to

just

can never claim", said his

ramifications are almost

able.

time,"

interested

came

"I

embrace

it

in

its

inextric-

totality

and

his plastic invention.

Grohmann got to know Klee in

Weimar at a point when, having left

wrote an essay on these

'Fi rst of al
drawings, followed by several articles
and in 1929 by a book published in

his circle of friends in Munich, he was

disposed to welcome new acquaint-

Paris by the 'Cahiers d'Art'. In 1933

published a volume on the drawings and

multiplicity."

'

183

DOCUMENT.

Y-

1933. Angelo Rosengart Collection, Lucerne.

the biography, which appeared

But always feel that did not
sufficiently stress the
inexhaustible
richness of his work and personality
that merely hinted at.
"When think of Klee and of our
later

in 1954.

184

work

common'

he wrote one
modesty, the
memory of hours passed together
hours like
rises up in my memory
his paintings, full of sweetness, tranquil
gaiety and spiritual intensity. One
'in

day with

his

as

habitual

could speak to him about anything

even personal matters. But when the
subject did not affect him, he listened
with a kind of indifferent attention.
"He spoke little and liked to be
silent. When he did speak a few words
he selected them and used them, like
the lines in his pictures, only after due
reflection. In his talk, as in his letters,

suggestive phrase and then waited for

approval or criticism.
"

'What

we were

a nightmare' he said

'How it soars' when the picture dealt

with flying forms. In the case of the
Ageing Venus, he merely gave a sidelong
smile and said that it was his contribution to the chronique scandaleuse

he had certain key words which were

pointers to the trend of his thought.
When he was thinking of having his
drawings published he wrote an
oblique letter with a pun on the word

and only for

which was a hint that

had to find him one. A publisher
was at last discovered but only one
out of three volumes was brought out

a great deal of

'publisher',

because in the meantime barbarism

had broken out in Germany. It was
these drawings which brought us

was fascinated by their

They were exactly like
his handwriting; later
saw that in his
manner, his gestures, his expressions
and his language the man was in perfect
harmony with his work.
together.

construction.

"A

over both Klee

and his work. He had become unused
to the 'direct approach' although he
had employed it in his youth. But this
veil was not used to hide things it was
there to make people look more
closely. For wl^at else is the meaning
of the word 'schema', which
have
applied to the successive forms he
invented? It means precisely that
shrouding of the spiritual perspective
which Klee renders directly visible.
"When we looked at his work
together, he would never attempt to
lead me astray but helped me with a
slight veil floated

when

faced by a confused scene, or

"It

is

initiates.

easier to understand the Kleeof

the hermetic works today than

1920.

in

New

aspects of his

it

was

work were

always emerging,

full of enigmas, and

time had to pass before
it became clear that Klee started from
plastic formulae in order to arrive at
the object and not vice versa. These
formulae he found in play and in
reality,
in
his
relations with the
universe, which for him, as for musicians, was to be found in relations and

functions.

'We understood each other from the

moment we met. It seemed to
both of us that we had known each
'

first

other for a long time.

We had the same

Greco, for
El
example, whom he would have collected, he said, had he been a millionaire; Rembrandt's drawings and Islamic
ornament. But here too Klee limited
himself to one or two hints. One never
preferences

got further than

'

he

'When,
felt

him

the

art

in

in

'allusions'.

940, the year of his death,

which was to carry

months later, progressing,

illness

off some

he wrote to me after reading the

'I have just made the acquaintance of Tragedy; it is not by chance
have set out along the Tragic
that
Oresteia:

Way.'
185

SCHOLAR.

186

1933. Private Collection. Berne.

SNAKE PATHS.

1924. Private Collection, Berne.

"Only work made him perfectly

'What happiness there could
be in a couple of lines!' he wrote to

happy.

example of the kind of little animal

breed.' Thus he belittled the impor-

me shortly

before the publication of his

tance of his present.

"He was always concentrated

drawings.

He

liked best to be in his

studio.

"Once he wrote to me that he did

not wish to be too easily understood.
'I shall shortly let you
have some nuts
worth cracking', he added. When
something
had written pleased him
he would thank me by giving me one
of his works. Thus one day he sent me
a drawing with a note which ran: 'An
I

in

measured movements, his slow pace and his considered

speech. He seemed so indolent that
revisiting him
it was a surprise, on
after three or four weeks, to see
the number of paintings, drawings and
sketches he had finish^ed. This was
poissible, because, if he was not dishimself.

Hence

his

turbed, he could work very hard. The

only interruption allowed was for
187

ALMOST A

FIGURE.

music, which he looked on as part of

saw

work, or at least as a preparation

for his work. He enjoyed nnusic greatly
but he also needed it as a stimulant. It
went deeper than painting, he felt, had
a more profound tradition and was an
unendmg source of instruction. He

ters, saying that

his

188

1938. Kiee-Stiftung, Berne.

Bach and Mozart his true masthey had taught him

more than any great master of painting.
And the sequence of his 'schemas'
which emerge from each other or are
contrasted with each other, derive
from his wide knowledge of the rules
in

PATHOS.

1938. Felix Klee Collection, Berne.

189

YOUNG

TREE (CHLORANTHEMUM).

1932. Pnvote Collection. Beine.

of music.

In his

work we

find the tech-

ated. Will

Grohmann was

invited to

nique of the exposition of themes,

of their succession, fusion and development. Thus Klee realized his youthful
dream of being a musician in a strange
way. In painting he was the musician

give the inhabitants of Berne an idea

he had dreamt of being."

When Klee appeared in Berne and
said to Rolf BiJrgi, son of the first
am,
collector of his works: "Here

expectedly. After his dismissal from

the academy at Dusseldorf he had left

there's no place for

me

in

Germany

any more", there were few people in

his native town who had heard of him,
although he had exhibited in New
York and Paris and his name was
already famous. Frau Burgi set about
making him better known and appreci-

AMATEUR DRUMMER.

of Klee's work; but the great retrospective exhibition was not held until
1935.

Klee

had

arrived

in

Berne

un-

everything behind him in fear of his

life. Yet up to the last he had resisted
Lily's insistence that he must not have
any illusions about the Nazis. But he
had,

after

Diary:

all,

once written

"What would

be

in

his

without

Germany?"
Rolf BiJrgi went north to remove the
works which had been left in the

1940. Private Collection.

191

BLACK

SIGNS.

1938. Felix Klee Collection, Bi

in Dusseldorf and returned to

Berne with Frau Klee, who was no

and

world-wide fame.

Studio

artist

longer the authoritarian

The generosity of Frau Burgi succeeded

Klee.
in interesting some people in

Lily

of old

in

his

She was a firm believer in her

husband's genius and was full of
adnniration and attention; now she

She

lived only for him.

"I am not saying that he has no talent,"

the old man had muttered in his beard,
"but he doesn't take enough care
over what he does." The municipal

days.

money the artist had earned

and banked in Germany was lost.
Klee was back once more in the state
he had been in when he left Berne
All

the

Then he had been

illusions: now he was

thirty years before.

poor but rich in

poor but rich
192

in

experience

as

an

had been the first person in

Switzerland to believe in his genius at
a time when his own father had doubts.

authorities
different

however

to the

remained ineloquence of Will

Grohmann.
Convinced that he would never be

>

POISON.

1932 Klee-Sti flung, Berne.

'93

?^^^^^

^.^

'

,-<:(..

JKB

e-

BROKEN MASK.

1934. Felix Klee Collection, Berne.

to return to Germany, Klee

decided to ask for Swiss citizenship.
His request was received with sus-

able

One

picion.

councillor

opposed

it

energetically because, so he maintained,

he had seen a picture by Klee which

was particularly damaging to Switzerland. It was a painting of a little field
with too many cows in it. "Art of this
kind does us harm. People abroad will
say that

we

have not sufficient pasture

for our cattle."

DIANA

IN

THE AUTUMN WIND.

Perhaps this is a case of ben trovato.

years before when Arp had asked
for Swiss citizenship he had been told:
"Your art will lead you to the lunatic
asylum and we will have to pay for
your keep and the treatment which
will be lavished upon you." Arp gave
up the attempt. But Klee insisted.

Many

Finally, however, Swiss citizenship was

granted to him. Too late he had died
the day before as a German in a nursing
home near Locarno.

1934. Klee-Stiftung, Berne.

195

/-Iff

NOT
96

PLEASED.

1939. Klee-Stiftung, Berne.

LITTLE

Angels, Saints and

BAROQUE

BASKET.

Demons

When

he came back to Berne Klee

seven years to live. It was
not until three years later in 1936
that he began to doubt his ability to
stand up to the disease v\/hich had
begun to make itself felt. But in 1933
he was barely fifty-four and full
of life. Admittedly the flight from
Germany as a result of the Nazis'
threats had shaken
him severely.
Germany was the country which had
once understood him, which had given
him a wife, a home, a professorship
and a model Goethe. But the new
had

still

1939. Klee-Stiftung, Berne.

Germany did not know what to do

with Goethes. It wanted peoples to
subject and living space to rule. Any
art which did not exalt these aims was
considered degenerate. One hundred
of K lee's works were confiscated by
the Nazis.
As he had done in Weimar, Klee
examined his conscience carefully and
asked himself whether he had really
achieved what he had set out to do.
Up to 1936 he contented himself with
finishing

some works already begun

at least in his

mindand

with bringing

quietly to a close a great

epoch

in his

life.

197

199

HOW

LIKE

AN ANGEL.

He ought to have been satisfied; but

he was not. Broken Mask (page 195)
already expresses his suffering of
spirit. It is a water-colour with nothing
in common with his previous work
cry of pain and fear in the night.

Many other works

restatements of

his

are

successful

favourite themes:

Diana in the Autumn Wind (page 194)

and Dame Demon (Cat. 12) are figures
he already knew, symbols which were
I

200

1939. Klee-Svftung, Berne.

already familiar. Gate of the Deserted

Garden (page 206) and The Way Out
Discovered (page 202) rounded off previous experiences without adding any-

thingtothem.
But
signs

in

that

of the

same

year, 1935, the first

conflict

torment him appeared

which was to
in

two com-

pletely different pictures: Rough-hewn

Head (page

147) and

Two Fruit Landscape

(page 209). The former

is

a sculptural

FORGETFUL ANGEL.

form,

firm

classicism;

and
the

geometrical
latter

Expressionist work.
to

be

hesitating;

The

in

its

decidedly

artist

1939. Klee-Stiftung. Berne.

formal and symbolical and points the

way to universal and religious concepts.

seems

but Expressionism

would win the day.

So in Berne Klee came back to the
Expressionist tendencies which had
marked the beginning of his career.
But it was no longer the academic
expression of the early etchings. The
Expressionism of his last period is both

It

is

difficult

how much his

new orientation.

to say

illness influenced this

becomes increasingly diffiMozart or Bach

work. Now it is the turn of

Certainly

it

cult to find echoes of

in

his

modern music with the tortured beat

of the drums and sometimes as in the

dulcamara (Cat.
the humour of the saxophone.

disenchanted
140)

Insula

201

THE

Klee was

ill

WAY OUT AT

LAST.

now. Following an attack

of measles, he developed sclerodermia

which slowly dried up his mucous

membranes. It is noticeable that in
his drawings the line loses its boldness
and brio; it no longer accords with
Henri Michaux's definition of it as "une
ligne pour le plaisir d'etre ligne,
d'aller, ligne". No doubt it obeys the
artist's will but has no longer its old
Mozartean lightness. The artist's imagination turned more and more to
'signs' which have 'a sematic value,
like the Chinese characters in the
202

1935. Felix Klee Collection, Berne.

Book of Metamorphoses'. His favourite

colours are yellows, greens, blues and
reds,

which are

later

become

at first

luminous but
sombre and

increasingly

thick.
In

1937 and

1938 the artist at

last

faced the challenge of large canvasses

without, however, giving up

his

own

brand of alchemy. He mixed gum and

chalk as he prepared the canvas,
alternating smooth and rough surfaces
by sticking on pieces of packing paper,
gauze or newspaper; when he painted
he mixed all techniques oil, tempera

PICTURE OF A PARK.

1933 Felix Klee Collection, Berne.

203

DOUBLE ISLAND.
204

1939. Klee-Stiftung. Berne.

VIOLIN

and water-colour. He also used pastels

a great deal because of their soft
sensual quality.

After his return to Berne, then, we

have chiefly works which are comple-

mentary to what went before. Towards

1937 the first great pastels appear with
their luminous, tender backgrounds,
which are sometimes plain, sometimes
constructed like tiled work on which
are traced certain signs; these are at
first

later they become

powerful and weighty.
almost as if the artist himself were
light,

but

increasingly
It is

beating

These

drum

'signs'

like

imitate

his

Drummer.

Islamic

script

or notes of music or else allude to

architectural forms, both round and
angular. Sometimes they hint at the

outline of a

human

AND BOW.

figure as in

1939.

Pomona

(page 247).
The graphic Expressionism of 1937

and 1938 is succeeded by the fgurative

Expressionism of the years 1939 to
1940. Figures of angels and devils
betray the artist's fear of death. Of
these

pictures

some

are

barbarous,

do not express
the extreme agony which we find in
the last works of all.
In
1939, feeling that the end was
near, he gave up even the short drives
in an open carriage which Rolf Burgi
had persuaded him to take. That year

some

refined; but they

two

thousand works.
on the second floor
of a small house in the Kistlerweg
in Berne. In front of the house there
he

painted

He was

living

205

GATE OF THE DESERTED GARDEN.

was
tree

little

the

garden

faithful

with

pine

which

The

pine

had

1935. Private Collection, Berne.

pictures painted

accompanied him from childhood and

which was one of his most trusty

corpus of

symbols.

(Cat.

In the summer, he received a visit

from Kandinsky. Two years previously
Braque and Picasso had come to see
him. Kandinsky found him in bed; to
cheer him up he invited him to Paris.

works

The sick man raised his hand a little and

made a slight negative gesture; but his
head

lay

said

that

sunk in the pillows. His eyes

they would not see each

other again.

206

in

1940 occupy

an extremely important place

Woman

In

153)

in

the

work.

his

National

in

and

Double,

in

Costume
the two
so much

which have had

on young contemporary
painters, his form is close to what we
influence

find in

the "papiers dchirs" of Arp.

The Guardian Angel

in

but

1939
in

also

(Cat. 149) painted

reminds

one of Arp;

these works Arp had naturally

become

Klee.

Only

rare cases which

Picasso,

tion from him, did

in

the

drew inspiranot become Klee.

Klee

EGYPTIAN

WOMAN.

1940. Felix Klee Collection, Berne.

207

He was the only artist whom Klee did

not succeed in absorbing.
The angels and saints Poor Angel,
Stained-glass

Saint

(Cat.

149)

Suddenly a presentinnent of the end

seems to bring the artist back to
Islam, which had always attracted him
so greatly, and to Africa. Even the
spectres,

it

now
is

Mozart and Bach

last

have
useless
in

the
to

eyes

look

of
for

the works of the

period; but there

is

Mussorgsky

the subdued funereal splendour of the

Cataconnbs, one of the tableaux in the
performance produced by Kandinsky
at Dessau in 1928, in Death and Fire

ROSINANTE'S GRANDSON.
208

recall

have

the splendour of a cathedral and are, as

it
were, forerunners of a barbaric
Triunnph of Death.

Flower-girls

famous tempera in the

Rupf Collection. Its dense colours
(Cat. 159), the

the

last

years of Titian,

in

whom

young man

Klee had refused to

recognize a colourist of genius. Other
works such as the terrifying Mask in
as a

the Klee Foundation, are undisguisedly

African.

His

last

work

of

all

still

life

which

gay harmonyofgreens, reds, oranges

and blues, takes us back to the Klee of
isa

the happier years. Perhaps it is himself

he has drawn in a.corner of the picture
in a life and death struggle with an

whom

he grips in two strong

is not only Jacob with
the muscular arms; he is also the
moon which gleams in the background
in all its yellow fullness.
angel

hands. But he

1939. Felix K/ce Collection. Berne.

TWO

FRUIT LANDSCAPE

Felix Klee Collection, Berne.

The Last Days

February 1940, only a few months
before his death, Klee agreed to
exhibit his works in the Kunsthaus in
Zurich. Frau Carola Giedion-Welcker
says that this great occasion was very
badly received by the critics.
"When saw Paul Klee for the last
time", she says, "in May 1940 in his flat
In

in Berne,
felt
in spite of his usual
calm and impassiveness that he was
somewhat upset when he spoke of the
latest display by the Swiss Press. The
great exhibition of his last works in
I

II.

the Kunsthaus the rich harvest of his

last seven years in Switzerland
had
been the occasion for numerous
attacks and Philistine misunderstandings. This negative reaction seemed to

be chiefly due to thefact that this 'painter

of minute pictures' suddenly began to

express himself

in

monumental

lan-

guage of signs and runic characters.

"The reason why Klee was so
annoyed by the notices in the press
was that he thought they might have a
dangerous effect on his life in Switzerland, for they seemed to be endangering the success of his request
209

NAVIGATIO MALA.

1939. Klee-Stiftung, Berne.

to the authorities of Berne for Swiss

citizenship. This

looking at the

learned only when,

problem

solely

touch him in his inner self. He showed

no interest in this side of the question,
but remarked dryly that to be suspected
both Joyce and Arp
of schizophrenia
had gone through similar purgatory
undoubtedly did not encourage the

live in

permission

to

Switzerland. Klee was right.

He

to

grant

few weeks later at

Locarno-Muralto. The country of his
mother's family, of his youth and his
language for he spoke pure Berne

was

to

die

210

even

"Our

from

the point of view of personal feelings,

argued that rude allusions to mental
abnormality which were intended to
flatter the public, could clearly not

authorities

dialect

to become
to

more

in

Germany

was

never

officially his native land.

conversation then passed on

pleasant topics.

He

told

me

that he wanted to go south and rest,

for the exhibition, with

all its problems of organization, seemed to have

tired him. In the course of our conversation, he was continually running
in and out of the little kitchen for,
as he remarked with a certain irony,
women did not like cooking any
more and most of the time he cooked
for himself. Behind this irony there lay,

in fact,

a tragic explanation, to

which

typically he did not allude. In fact he

could only take liquid food, specially

prepared, and he had to watch carethe desire and opportunity to

fully for

But that was a subject he would

not discuss. He accepted his illness
with the same submissiveness to fate

time was pressing and death

Joyce accepted his half-blind state.

He never connplained and never devoted any particular attention to it.
The best way of overcoming it was to

What

eat.

as

integrate

work and

it

through discipline into

daily

energies

many
and

constant

last

years

all

were directed towards

completing

and perfecting his vast

oeuvre. The progress of his illness does
not seem to have diminished his
productivity, but on the contrary to
have stimulated him. His subconscious
told him that he had to hurry, that

SCYLLA.

of his pictures

inexorable

both

struggles,

as

we

was

threat.

physical

and

mental, lay behind this labour no one

would ever know, for Klee was

man

of great silences.

"That day

time an
the phases
and all the varying expressions of this
product of genius.
was attracted by
the task of transmitting my own
experience of an art born of so much
I

felt for

the

intense desire to trace

life.

"In the course of his

his

his

can see from

first

all

silence

which
spirit'

of his

and

meditation

an

art

in

conquered by the
(the title given by Klee to one
earliest drawings) and in which
'suffering

is

1938. Klee-Stiftung, Berne.

211

NEWLY

the

artist's

through

inner

LAID

life

'consoling

OUT GARDEN.

was expressed

symbols'.

But

in

1940 the climate of the times was not

only a threat to the 'flowers of this

collective history of

European art and,

at

establish
his

the

the same time, to

relationship

work and contemporary

between
artistic

One

had to form links with the

past in order to trace his deep roots in
the culture of his own time and also to

"It was only twelve years later that

was able to fulfil the desire which

determine the influence upon him of

a more distant past. For Klee was not

reality in

emerge from the

the press
said, but to the very
which they were rooted.

sublime type
impertinently

1937. Private Collection. Berne.

of. art'

had experienced
of the war.

in

as

these troubled

The dominating
aspects of my task seemed to me to be
twofold: to make Klee's personality

days

212

life.

an artist

who

placed the accent solely

on the present. Like Arp he was steeped

in
memories. The influences which
had affected him ranged from the

WITH GREEN STOCKINGS.

1939. Felix Klee Collection. Berne.

213

GROUP OF
214

SEVEN.

1939. K/ee-St/ftung, Berne.

FRATERNITY.

1939. Klee-Stiftung, Berne

Munich Jugendstil, the draughtsman,

Gulbransson, and

the grotesques of
Christian Morgenstern to James Ensor
and Goya, who has played a very
special part

through

modern artists."
Then there came
point

the

painter.

quite

his fascination for

Delaunay,

awakening

of

stimulated

who was

his

Diary at Kairouan on

Klee

the

by

Robert

a decisive influence

not only on Klee but on

many

of his

most gifted contemporaries, such as

Macke and Marc. But what lay behind
the metamorphosis which made a
painter of a draughtsman, was not only

16th April,

1914, bears witness: "I and colour are

one ...
that sharp turning-

The beginning of something

new

the flower of French culture there

was also Nature: Klee's experience of
colour in Africa. The phrase jotted in

am

a painter."

direct experience of
Giedion-Welcker
Carola
continues, "Klee's world is no longer
grotesque but mystical an intellectual
trend which affected both Germany
and France in the twenties and found
expression not only in painting but

"After
colour",

this

also in poetry.

common

It

was a phenomenon
to which

to Europe; one
Klee's art contributed its

own

vital

215

FURNISHED ARCTIC.
216

1935. Coierie Rosengart, Lucerne.

life was such that the

the times struck root there.
It is not only in his writings and in his
Diary that we find this new world but

force. His inner

spirit of

above

all

painting,

the transparency of his

his
misty sublimation,

in
in

space.

Here we

new mode

of expres-

which embraces
find an entirely

all

in the colour such

as Robert
Delaunay had introduced in 'Lecubisme
orphique'. But Klee laid more stress
on spiritual poetry and often linked
the mystical element with an element
of burlesque,
comparable to the
Galgenlieder of Morgenstern or the

sion

We

mystique

Motorel of

du

Frre

Jacob.

"The Bauhaus
in

burlesque

et

Max

period, which begins

1921, produces a kind of counter-

point. For ten years

it

brings Klee and

Kandinsky together again. This

period

of theoretical

is

reflection

the
and

in the course of which he produced the Padagogisches Skizzenbuch.

study

More and more

theoretical

Kandinsky's,
structive on

appears that Klee's

are, along with

among the
modern art.

Albrecht Durer,
seeker.

it

writings

What

is

most

in-

Klee,

like

a thinker and

interest

him are propor-

formulae and laws; in that he is

the opposite of Picasso, as Durer is of
tions,

Grunewald. Of particular interest is

his anticipation of the atmosphere of
Egypt, his experience of it and the
way in which he transformed it all of
which happened at the end of the

Behind his proporcolour relations

and
tional
there flowers a new world of images.
The composition, the structure, the
rhythm, the coloured light, combine

Bauhaus period.
tensions

217

EXOTIC TEMPLE
218

GIRL. 1939. Klee-Stiftung, Berne.

ANOTHER CAMEL!

1939.

F.

C.

Schang

Collection,

New

York.

219

/
GREEN ON GREEN.

to arouse a

new

1938. Dr.

feeling of space, to

bring about a radical transformation of

perspective
'ubiquity'.

into

Pictures

completely
like

new

Highway and

Byways are the most significant results

of the Egyptian period and are among
the finest treasures of contemporary
art.

"The Klee exhibition in Zurich in

1940, in which the monumental images
glowed
220

like

the

characters

of

Hans Meyer-Benteli. berne.

Runic language revealed a style of

drawing which was linear, black, thick
set on a
like great wooden beams
coloured background; there was none
of the transparency of twenty years
before. The exhibition was a brilliant

display of Klee's late style.

"It was during this exhibition that
understood that a new symbolical
language had come to its maturity in
these large-scale works, and that they
I

CALIGULA.

1936.

Felix Klee Collection, Berne.

221

A NEW ORDER BUT ORDER.

were, perhaps, Klee's most important

and most original contribution to
European art of the twentieth century.

There

his

philosophical

mind could

conceived
with the utmost simplicity and embracing both the present and the most
reveal itself

remote

in visible signs,

past.

Pictures

like

Insula

Dulcamara, that fabulous island, which

had haunted him since 1913, or the
great picture Project, are

from both the

222

new

worlds,

optical and the intel-

1939. Klee-Stiftung, Berne.

of view. These works

and his work to a close in
the grand manner. For Klee, as he said
in
9 9, art was not there to reproduce
the visible but to render visible what
lay hidden beyond the visual world.
He remained faithful to this doctrine
and brought its deep meaning to
fruition until, after passing through
many intermediary stages, he achieved
in his pictorial world its last, essential
beauty."
lectual

point

bring his

life

VALKYRIE.

1940. Klee-Stiftung, Berne.

223

TREE IN THE

224

TOWN.

1939. Felix Klee Collection. Berne.

EVENING

IN

THE SUBURBS.

'The Heart of Creation'

On

including

0th May, a few days after Carola

Giedion-Welcker's visit, Klee felt the
end to be near and was accompanied
by his wife to a nursing home at
Orselina near Locarno. A few months
previously his old father had died and
1

Klee had said to Lily:

"You

will

see

won't survive him long." From

day to day his condition became worse.
On 8th June the invalid was urgently

that

1940. Felix Klee Collection, Berne.

Hermann

Rolf Burgi

Rupf,

and Georg Schmidt, the keeper of the

Basle Museum. His son was not present.
He had seen his father for the last time
at the end of the summer and had had
a long talk with him about Sicily, from
which he had just come back with his
wife. Now he was mobilized some-

where in Germany. After the pastor, it

was Georg Schmidt who spoke:
"Amidst the uproar of death", he
said

"the most

silent

and the most

to a nursing home in
Muralto-Locarno. Paralysis was approaching the heart. In order not
to upset him no one talked of the
war and they kept from him both the

exceptionally

German offensive and the fall of Paris.

He died on the morning of 29th June.
He was cremated in Lugano on st July.

seemed to foreshadow something completely new. Those who watched the

transferred

On

4th July, a memorial service was

attended by his wife and some friends

exceptional

of

modern

artists

silently died. For long those

has

who were

close to

him had trembled for that

precious

For in the last year of an

productive life a new
had come to maturity and

harvest

life.

drying up of the sap in the roots of his

being could see in the more vigorous

225

tonalities of his later works a kind of

triumph of creative will over matter
and sought, therefore, to discover in

the fruits

lament

of his

new

signs of a

maturity the

first

Now we

must

flowering.

double

loss

our

human

Full Stop.

Thus, to the end of

his life,

works remained in harmony

with the law of his being. The pride of
triumphing over death for a few days,
with a few works, has no place in that
Klee

in his

patient, submissive

life.

However

works are not only more

sombre in tonality it seems as if in
them the smile which played round his
mouth and which we find in so many

hear

of his pictures has died away.

contact without friend and the promise

of the unripened fruit.
"I

have

seen

Klee's

last

works.

painful it may be for us to

they do not contain any of the
buds of a fresh spring. They are the
finale of a life which knew its end to
be near.
must admit even more
precisely,
truthfully,
and painfully,
that they are a variation on the theme
it,

We

THE SNAKE GODDESS

226

AND HER

"Klee's

last

It

is

the

harshest possible symbols of inevitability, which multiply there, like the

long-prepared finale of a symphony.

"Now Klee has lived through man's
ultimate experience; but he had lived

ENEMY.

1940. Private Colleciion, Berne.

SPECTACLES

IN

A TANTRUM.

1938. Klee-Stiftung, Berne.

227

A CHILD'S GAME.

1939. Felix Klee Collection, berne.

through many others

mitted

to

human

internal or external,

tangible

symbols.

forms,
All

of

all

those per-

beings,

of

in

whether

the language of

tangible,

legible

them!

Everything
everything in-

and visible;
and invisible; all organized
creatures, from man to the lowest
external

ternal

228

orders of an imal or vegetable existence

the totality of inorganic objects which
man has made for his use; those which
nature has formed by chance; those
which are waiting to be integrated into
life's evolutionary cycle.
"We would require a formidable
catalogue of the possible phenomena

WANTS TO GO ABOARD.

the human, animal and vegetable

if we were to calculate what
Klee knew and transmitted to us and
always his knowledge concerned the
inner raison d'etre of things, their
essential
quality,
not their mere
appearance. Suppose we attempt to
assess what Klee knew and told us of

1939. Felix Klee Collection, Berne.

in

the objects man uses

worlds,

we know

let us

take those

our means of
transport on earth, on water or in
the air, then we will see on what
affectionate terms he was with all
objects familiar to man. Similarly we
could list all the phenomena of our
earth and its landscape the totality
best, a house,

229

of meteorological

phenomena

we

days and years; soon

of the
should be

obliged to tear ourselves away from

behind us,
launch out into the realm of the stars.
"It was in intermediary zones that
Klee found his true climate: the intermediary state between night and day;
between things constructed and those
which grow naturally (for which Klee's
symbol isthegarden); the intermediary
zone where the inorganic mutates into
the organic, from plant to animal, from
animal to human being. This series of
gradations Klee did not look upon as
a progression
for him it was a path
which led as straight and as naturally
this earth and, leaving

it

far

THROUGH
230

POSEIDON.

in

one direction

as in

the other. Klee

did not measure reality with the petty

human cares, desires or needs;

he gave himself to reality in all its
forms. He abandons himself to it
without restriction and with the
utmost confidence, the deepest love
for everything that exists, or could
exist. For Klee, reality does not stop
at the world of visible and tangible
objects. It embraces the whole living
scale of

world, the world which includes all

beings
and
inorganized
organized
things, the active forces of formation,
mutation and destruction.

"Perhaps
cally

it

is

in

the

field

human psychology

1940. Curt Valentin Collection,

New

York.

of specifi-

that

Klee's

ANTIQUE FIGURE.

1940. Klee-Stiftung, Berne.

231

art

richest.

is

It

is

an art which

knows

anguish and turbulence, hate and love,

gravity and frivolity, irony and faith.
knows arrogance and humility,
It
it
knows all
human states in all their
gradations. It knows good and bad

melancholy and gaiety;

possible

germination and decomposiand decay. It knows all

the intermediary phases between life
and death. It knows life because it
knows death. Klee is always ready for
any adventure in the visible and
invisible world.
"There is no other artist of our time
spirits,

tion, flowering

who comes

so close to whatever

and formed, that

living

is

is

to say to

who was the most

most refined, the most
tender artist of our times.
reality, as Paul Klee,

the

silent,

"It

only

is

if

we

are

capable

of

between experience of

distinguishing

and objective representation

to say between realist thought
representation that
naturalist

reality

that

is

and

we

understand that Klee is one

of the greatest spirits in the domain
of a reality which has been both
experienced and artistically shaped
that he is the greatest realist of our
times."
In September 1942, the urn containing the artist's ashes was taken to the
shall

Schlosshalde
Klee's grave

from

his

is

in

inscribed

Berne.
an

On

extract

Diary:

cannot be grasped

"I

for

Cemetery

am

as

much

at

in this

world,

home with

the dead as with those yet unborn

a little nearer to the heart of creation than is normal but still too far

away."
232

WITH THE

TWO

LOST ONES.

1938. R. Doetsch-Benziger Collection, Basle.

233

BIEDERMEIER-FRAULEIN.

234

1940. Felix Klee Collection. Berne.

'^^/\

.{r-7^

HE

ROWS

DESPAIRINGLY.

An Unorthodox Saint

1940. Klee-Stiftung, Berne.

Mondrian's

Klee gave to painting an unexplored

world, whose frontiers
before his
time had
been crossed only by

music
and
mathematics.
Admittedly Kandinsky also opened
up a new world to the arts and Mondrian has brought us his absolute
reality. But if the latter's 'truth' is
too objective, the former's is too
individual. Kandinsky rarely allows us
to enter his world and we still have no
real desire to enter Mondrian's. It is
from the outside that we admire both
poetry,

solar

human

more

universe

stellar

and

the

microcosm

of

Kandinsky.
Certain philosophers maintain that
is poetical but absurd
as

Klee's world
it

would indeed be

succeed
tence.

If

did the artist not

in convincing us of its exishe failed to do so it would not

even be poetic. Klee's paintings reveal

an area of intuitive knowledge where
the absurd has its own rigorous logic
and therefore ceases to be absurd.
Without using drugs, without opium,
without mescalin, the artist, by virtue
of the peculiar power and constitution

235

POOR ANGEL.

of

his

1939. Private Collection, Berne.

genius,

that

of science.

science

and

236

For

is
if

renounced

would inevitably
its

to

attains

absolute truth, which

revelationary

truth

an

not,

however,

art

replaced

intuition,

it

find itself crippled in

function.

Einstein,

who,

like

'delirium

Klee,

was

possessed

by

nnathematicunn* was of the

same opinion.
if
you like, a
is,
Klee's world
primitive one a world of caves, but
of stellar caves, which open up a new

GROUP WITH MAN RUNNING AWAY AND HURLING

INSULTS.

1940. Klee-Stiftung,

Berne.

237

cycle of civilization on a more advanced

planet. Some day, perhaps, another

great artist will reveal a vaster area of

knowledge but he will not be able to

overshadow Klee's work, because for

Klee each technical problem was a
problem of style. However subtle and

may

technique is
never an end in itself. It is the very
essence of the painting. Even his
humour, which to begin with was the
mainspring of his art, in the years of
maturity is only the spark from which
refined

it

be,

his

meditation, acquires form by intuitive

not
use of the most direct methods
only when it expresses itself in simple

symbols

familiar

sensibilities, as

the growth of

Western

our

to

when he meditates on
a tree or on man with

the eternal tear in his eyes, but also in

the 'magic squares' and the still more
magical Egyptian landscapes. Perhaps
he is then unwittingly much nearer to

the heart of creation, that supreme

goal of the artist.
It

would be

a mistake to judge Klee

his

work is born.
The question remains whether the

the artist entirely from the point of

view of Klee the theoretician. It would

world of Klee's art always corresponds

any case, as Grohmann recognizes,

impossible task. Klee himself,
when judging his work, used to amuse
himself by giving marks. Sometimes

to what the artist attempted to define

his

in

writings

including

the thou-

sands of pages of his unpublished papers

on the doctrine of style and of projection into space, on regular forms, on

the square, the circle, the ellipse, the
parabola, the hyperbole and so on.
It is a question which cannot be answered without a certain embarrassment for it seems that the two
universes the
one he conceived
mentally and the one he created

meet

plastically

the sky; that

in

to say,

is

the point of fusion.

nately for

more

realizes

the

us,

ambitions

Had he

of

Klee

limitations of science,

rejected.

His

artist's
his

still

without

thinker.

he would

all,

subject to the

nature

danger.

any

always

we admire

If

as a

more precious to

thought,

238

the

which he rightly

him when he succeeds

is

fortu-

Klee the artist never

than a tiny portion of

them
have become

saved him from

stars

never to

short,

In

realized

inevitably

two

only like

thinker he

us

when

hint

of

his

pre-

in

be an

he went so far as to mark

his

water

colours with the letters S.C., which

stood for Sonder-Classe special cateBut he always judged his own

gory.

work from the

artist

point of view of the

and not the philosopher.

When

with the exceptional

one might

faced

richness of Klee's imagerie,

perhaps say that

it is

in fact

a reflection

of the cosmic fervour of his thought.

But there

is

something else there

that

humour which we

his

theoretical

humour even
of his

last

was the

last

in

days.

rarely find

in

There is
the gloomy pictures
writings.

The

life,

still

which

by way of
of humour over

of his works,

is

being the triumph

the preceding paintings. Klee's humour

only be reconciled with the

mysticism of Klee the thinker in the
same way as we justify the unorthodox
can

ways of certain
is

to decide

when

saints.

he

is

The

difficulty

being the more

ECCE.

1940. Felix Klee

Collection. Berne.

239

NAKbiJ

unorthodox

when

he

ON

is

THE BED.

1939. Feiix Klee Collection, berne.

theorizing

when he turns back to

the full moon and the slender

mystically or

gaze at

an

undisputed

worthy of our

What

does surprise us

pine tree or to listen to the canary's

ate search for

mechanical song. But the poet in him

must not have all our affection. Alongside the poet there is the painter who,
even when he is joking, reveals to the
young painters the real problems of

for materials,

the

primacy,

ful

effects;

appears excessive

240

first

painting, in

which he has

is

his obstin-

but they were not always

work

fires

less

which certainly allowed

him togiveexpression to his passion for
alchemy (he was a twentieth-century
wizard) and to attain certain wonder-

contemporary

and

no

impastos, for colours,

unerring arrow.
This aspect of him as the apostle of
art

is

affection and gratitude.

indispensable. His conviction that each

demands

its

own

materials

particularly

if

we

consider the fact that, in spite of all

his alchemy, his colours are always of

the simplest, and most common. What

his mania did was to reveal to him
that elementary poetry in an artist's
which the Cubists had
materials
casually

discovered.

sackcloth

with

colour can

move our

the

fragment

of

patch

of

right

much

feelings as

the grand style

perhaps even more, because of that

as a canvas painted in

thirst for novelty, for surprise,

is

in

each one of

Some

people

consider

which

us.

including

his

son

was
due to slow poisoning brought on by
Felix

that

his

illness

the toxic substances in the colours

which he handled so haphazardly.

Will

Grohmann

has rightly said that

one could write ten different books

on Klee. If one were to write another
dealing only with his work, it would
be limited to

the

his first definition

of art

he got from Oscar

Wilde: symbols and space. (From his
early works Klee shows a profound
intuitive
understanding for space.)
One could, on the other hand, study
his colour alone; then one would
discover that the artist put the
critics on to a false trail with that
famous phrase at Kairouan. For they
ignore all his preceding work, except
for the drawings and etchings. Yet
Klee was a born colourist, as is clear

from

definition

his

youthful

paintings.

In

1913

#4
GLANCE.

1940. Klee-Stiftung, Berne.

241

he was no less great as a colourist than

in
1914 after the journey to Tunis.
In Kairouan, if you like, he celebrated
his wedding with colour; but like his
wedding with Lily it had been preceded
by long years of passionate love. His
hesitation

was due

solely to his fight

against the age in which he lived,

which attempted to impose its own
taste and its own attitude to art; but
in the end it was he who imposed his
own genius and his own taste.
We can never exhaust Klee's work.
It
yields up its secrets only to the
extent that we delve into it more and
more deeply. For that we must live

with it for a long time. We wander

about in it at random and little by
little the magic takes effect.
feel
ourselves insensibly caught in the net
of this enchanted universe, which is
so close to our own and which pro-

We

vides

with

it

mysterious

He

is

stantly

a painter

which we must con-

have to hand

learn to

know

plants,

we

if

wind, to lose ourselves in the maze

of enchanted roads leading to nowhere, in the depths of the undergrowth where strange music plays.

Some

of his

able

as

embalmed
all

if

works are
petrified.

beauty.

set and

Theirs

immovis

an

Others belong to

time, for they contain such a range

power

that they can respond to all

mankind's innumerable aspirations; as
it changes they also change. As fragile
and perishable as those who seek
refuge in them and the respite of a
moment, they bear the promise that
what in man is most delicate, most
his dreams
free, and most threatened

of

may yet survive.

&

242

wish to

water and the

f^^^

POEM

second

meaning.

IN PICTURE SCRIPT. 1939. Felix Klee Collection. Berne.

Biographical Notes

SAILING SHIPS

KLEE Biographical
1879

18th

Notes.

who

Berne-Hofwyl,

The Klee
in

1927. Private Collection. Berne.

at Munchenbucksee near Berne.

the training school for teachers at

December. Birth of Paul Klee

His father,
1880

MOVING GENTLY.

1876

is

family

is

music master

German;

^father

his

at

mother

Swiss.

and mother, Paul and

his sister

Mathilde

born

settles in Berne.

1880

Birth of Franz Marc, Ernst

1881

Birth of Picasso.

1882

Birth of Braque.

Ludwig Kirchner and Hermann

1^84

Birth of Karl Schmidt-Rottluf.

1885

Birth of Delaunay.

Haller.

primary school and the Berne Gymnasium. Takes

Matura.
At the age of seven he learns to play the violin.
Trovatore.
At the age often, he sees his first opera

1886- 1898 Klee attends

1887
1896

his

/'/

August Macke.
The two reviews jugend and Simplizissimus begin to appear
Birth of

in

Munich;
245

^>^^
dr

^^^^Vk

M m

&

<;

'

m^\

"'^^H

RJ
if
THE PARK AT ABIEN.

1898

1899
1900

246

1939 Fe/;x K/ee CoWtction, Berne.

they will spread the Jugendstil and publish drawings by Th. Heine, Olaf
Gulbransson and others, which will influence Klee.
Kandinsky, born in Moscow in 1886, and Javlensky, born at Suslovo in
1864, come to Munich and meet at Anton Azb's school of painting.
In October, Klee goes to Munich and enters Knirr's school of art. He once
more meets the sculptor Hermann Haller, whom he had known since 1886.
In the autumn he meets the pianist Lily Stumpf (born 1876), daughter of
a Munich doctor; she will become his wife in 1906.
In October Klee enrolls at the Munich Academy and joins Franz Stuck's

POMONA.

1938. Klee-Stiftung, berne.

is also studying there. But the two men do not meet.

Klee takes courses on the history of art, studies anatomy, practises modelling and takes his first steps in the technique of etching.
He leaves the Academy and goes on a journey to Italy with Hermann

Studio; Kandinsky

1901

(22nd October), Genoa, Leghorn, Pisa, Rome

March 1902).
Naples (23rd March-6th April), Rome (7th-l3th April), Florence (15th
April-2nd May). He returns to Berne where he stays until 1906.
Kandinsky opens an art school in Munich.
Haller.

He

visits

Milan

(27th October-23rd

1902

1902

247

1903

In

Berlin Karl Scheffler and Casar Flaischlen found the review Kunst und

which Klee will later submit some of his drawings.

Klee produces his first ten etchings. He reads greatly and goes
frequently to the theatre, to the opera and to concerts. He plays a great
deal of music himself and is violinist in the Berne municipal orchestra.
Kunstler, to

1903-1905

904

a trip to Munich he studies the

the Kupferstichkabinet.
Klee produces his first "sous-verres".

During

work

of Beardsley, Blake and

Goya

in

1905

He

visits Paris

friends Hans Bloesch and Louis Moilliet (31st

along with his Swiss

May-I3th June).

Visits

the

Louvre and the Muse du Luxembourg. Is particularly interested in

Leonardo da Vinci, Goya, Velasquez, Tintoretto, Watteau, Chardin, Puvis
de Chavannes, Manet, Monet, and Renoir. No mention in his diary of the
new painters of the day Matisse, Picasso, etc.
In Paris the Fauves exhibit in the Salon d'Automne.
In Dresden the Expressionist painters
Kirchner, Heckel, Schmidt-Rotluff
found Die Brucke.
Klee exhibits six etchings at the Sezession in Munich.
From 8th to 6th April he is in Berlin with Bloesch. At the National Galerie
he sees the Centenary Exhibition and is particularly interested in Feuerbach, Mares, LeibI, Trbner, Menzel and Liebermann. On the way home
he breaks his journey at Kassel to admire the Rembrandts in the Museum.
At Karlsruhe he is "terrified" by Grunewald's Crucifixion.
15th September
marriage to Lily Stumpf.
In October he settles in Munich. In order to support them his wife teaches
music while he looks after the house.
Offers some drawings to Simplizissimus; they are not accepted.
Kandinsky goes to Paris for a year.

1906

1907

Klee submits etchings and "sous-verres" to Karl Scheffler who refuses to

them in Kunst und Kunstler.
Three "sous-verres" which he submits to the jury of the Munich Sezession
are also rejected.
publish

He

sees

some

Impressionist paintings

in

Munich

gallery; he particularly

admires Manet.

He sees a large collection of Toulouse-Lautrec; he is most interested by

the drawings and lithographs.
His Swiss friend Ernst Sonderegger introduces him to the work of Ensor
and Daumier.
30th
1908

248

November

birth

of his only child, Felix.

Sonderegger makes him read the letters of Van Gogh; shortly after he sees
two very important exhibitions of his work inthe Munich galleries.
The Bund Zeiciinender Kunstler, an association of artists interested in
drawing, refuses to make him a member.

The Debschltz School employs him

for some months to supervise its

evening classes for drawing from the nude.
The Munich Sezession, to which he sends six of his sous-verres, accepts
only three.
He offers the etching Hero with a Wing to Franz Biel for the review Hyperion.
It is

never published.

He

sends six drawings to the Berlin Sezession, which exhibits them

black and white Salon.

Cubism born
1909

in its

in Paris.

He

describes an exhibition by Hans von Mares at the Munich Sezession

as "an event".

He sees eight pictures by Cezanne at the Sezession and discovers in him

the master par excellence who teaches him much more than Van Gogh.
On Franz Biel's advice he submits some drawings to Meier-Graefe, who
is reticent about them. Some of these drawings, which Biel had wanted to
publish in Hyperion are fmally sent back to him without having been
published.

He

plans to illustrate Voltaire's Candide.

Berlin Sezession exhibits some of his work.

Kandinsky founds the Neue Kunstlervereinigung in Munich along with
Javlensky, Marc, Kubin and others.
The first Futurist Manifesto appears in Milan and Paris.
Klee exhibits fifty-six of his works from the years 1907-1910 at the Berne
Museum, at the Zurich Kunsthaus and in a gallery in Winterthur.
One of his drawings is acquired by Alfred Kubin (born 1877).
Kandinsky writes Concerning the Spiritual Elennent in Art and paints his first

The

1910

abstract composition.
In

Berlin,

Herwarth Walden (born 1878) founds the avant-garde Der

Sturm.

The Manifesto of
Russolo) appears
1911

Futurist Painters (Carr, Boccioni, Balla, Severini and

in

Milan.

The exhibition organized in Berne the year before is shown in Basle.

The critic Wilhelm Michel submits some of Klee's drawings to the editor
of the review Kunst und Dekoration, who refuses to publish them, and to
the Munich art dealer, Thannhauser, who agrees to exhibit thirty of them
in the corridor of his gallery.
Klee produces his illustrations to Candide.
He meets August Macke at the house of Louis Moilliet in Switzerland.
He is one of the founder-members of Sema an association of artists
which includes, among others, Kubin, Caspar and Scharff.
He meets Kandinsky, Franz Marc, Heinrich Campendonck, Marianne von

V^erefkin, Gabriela Munter and Hans Arp.

249

Kandinsky, Marc, Kubin and Gabriela Munter leave the Neue KunstierThe first two work on a book which will appear in 1912 under

vereinigung.

the

title

of Der 6/oue Reiter;

in

December they organize an important

exhibition with the same title at Thannhauser's.

It brings together fortythree pictures by Henri Rousseau, Robert Delaunay, Kandinsky, Marc,
Macke, Campendonck, etc. Klee is most impressed by Delaunay, who
exhibits five works, among them Saint-Sever in (1909) and La Ville (191 I).

1912

in the second exhibition of the 6/oue Re/ter group, which

the Goltz Gallery and is composed entirely of drawings and

Klee participates
is

held

in

etchings.

From 2nd to

Delaunay and Le Fauconfinds works by

Henri Rousseau, Braque and Picasso, of Kahnweiler (Derain, Vlaminch and
Picasso), of Bernheim-Jeune (Matisse) and others. Delaunay sends him an
article which he translates for Der Sturm. It is published in the number for
January 1913, under the title of On Light.
Klee meets Karl Wolfskehl, the friend of Stefan George.
In the Thannhauser Gallery, he admires an exhibition of Italian futurists
Carr, Boccioni, Severini and Russolo arranged by Herwarth Walden,
who in that same year opens the Sturm Gallery in Berlin.
Kandinsky publishes his book on Spirituality in Art.
Arp puts Klee into contact with the writer Otto Flake, with a view to
publishing his illustrations for Candide in the Weisse Blatter. Klee exhibits
in the Sturm Gallery and takes part in the same gallery in the first German
Salon d'Automne, which presents a wide survey of modern European art
with 360 pictures.
Kandinsky publishes his autobiographical essay Ruckblicke in Der Sturnn.
Klee is one of the founders of the New Munich Sezession
a group instigated by the critic Wilhelm Hausenstein; Marc and Kandinsky do not
18th April he visits Paris, goes to see

nier and visits the galleries of

Wilhelm Uhde where he

1913

1914

take part.

Journey to Tunisia in the company of Moilliet and Macke. 3rd-6th April

Munich, Berne, Geneva, Lyons, Marseilles. 7th April: arrival in Tunis
visits to Saint-Germain, Sidi-bou-Said, Carthage, Hamammet and Kairuan.
19th April: leaves Tunis. Returns by way of Palermo, Naples, Rome,
Milan, Munich, which he reaches on 25th April. This journey is of the
utmost importance for Klee's development. It brings him the revelation of
colour; he confirms his conviction that he is a painter.
outbreak of war.
1st August
Marc, Macke and Campendonck are mobilized. Kandinsky, Javlensky,
Marianne von Werefkin and Gabriele Munter leave Germany. Klee stays
on in Munich.
Macke killed in Champagne.
16th August
:

250

J^f

1/^

PRECIPICE IN THE ALPS.

1915

Fi

1938. Felix Klee Collection. Berne.

visit from Rilke. In the course of the summer he goes to

with the permission of the German military authorities.
He begins modelling and colouring statuettes.
Franz Marc killed at Verdun.

Klee receives a

Sv\^itzerland

1916

251

Klee mobilized in the Landsturm. He is sent first to Landshut

Ith March
and then to Munich (end of July-August), then to Schleissheim where he is
stationed in an air-force depot. He works as a painter and accompanies
convoys to Cologne and Saint-Quentin.
The first demonstrations of the Dada group, founded by Hans Arp, the
Roumanian poet, Tristan Tzara and the German writers, Hugo Ball and
Richard Husenbeck, take place in the Cabaret Voltaire in Zurich.
I

1917

Klee

is still

stationed at Schleissheim; he accompanies a convoy to Nord-

On his way back he stops at Berlin and visits

collector Bernard Koehler.

holz near Cuxhaven.

Walden and the

16th January
is

he

is transferred to Gersthofen near Augsburg, where he

pay clerk.
exhibits at the Sturm Gallery and sells several of his works.

employed

He

Herwarth

as

The poet Theodor Daubler, devotes

him

a flattering article to

in

the

Berliner E>rsencourie.r.
In Leyden, Theo van Doesburg founds DeStijI, the review of Neo-Plasticism,
along with Piet Mondrian, Vilmos Huszar, Georges Vantongerloo and

others.

1918

1919

Klee remains at Gersthofen until after the armistice. Towards Christmas

he is demobilized and returns to his family in Munich.
In Berlin, Walden publishes the Sturm-Bilderbuch made up of drawings
from Der Sturm, including fifteen drawings by Klee.
Kandinsky becomes professor at the Academy of Art in Moscow.
In Munich Klee rents a large studio in the Suresnes Palace. Two painters,
Willi Baumeister and Oskar Schlemmer, try to have him taken on as
professor at the Stuttgart Academy; but he is turned down.
He signs a contract with the picture dealer Goltz. Kahnweiler begins to
buy his pictures.
The Kestnerbuch, which appears in Hanover and to which Thomas Mann,
Daubler, Doblin, Worringer, Heckel, Schwitters and Feininger contribute,

publishes a lithograph by Klee.

The

architect,

Lyonel

1920

Walter Gropius (born 883) founds the Bauhaus

Feininger (born

1871) and Johannes

in

Weimar.

(born 1888), both

painters, and the sculptor Gerhard Marcks (born 1889) and other representatives of advanced art and architecture become professors there.
Klee has a big exhibition in Munich at Goltz's gallery with 362 works.
The Berlin review Tribune der Kunst und Zeit, edited by Kasimir Edschmid
Itten

publishes Creative Confession, which Klee began to write

in

1918.

His illustrations to Candide, which date from 1911, are published by Kurt

Wolff in Munich.
Another work illustrated by him Curt Corrinth's Potsdamer Platz
published by Georg Mller in Munich.

252

is

Hans von Wedderkop and Leopold Zahn each devote

a monograph to him.
25th November he is invited to become a professor at the Bauhaus.
Klee leaves Munich for Weimar.
At the Bauhaus he begins v\^ith Formmeister (master of form) in a glass
workshop then in the v\/eaving school. Later he also teaches painting.
Wilhelm Hausenstein publishes his monograph Kairuan, or The History
of the Painter Klee and the Art of our Time.

On

1921

Death of K lee's mother.

Theo von Doesburg

lectures at the Bauhaus and spreads the ideas of

Neo-Plasticism.

Oskar Schlemmer becomes a professor

at

the Bauhaus.

Moscova KandinskyfoundstheAII-Russian Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Klee takes part in exhibitions at Wiesbaden and Berlin.
Kandinsky, who returned to Germany towards the end of 1921, also

In

1922

becomes

1923

a professor at the Bauhaus.

Klee publishes Ways of Studying Nature
Bauhaus in Weimar 1919-1923.

1925

the publication Staatliches

summer on the

island of Baltrum in the North Sea. In

Kurt Schwitters and El Lissitsky.
He exhibits in the Kronprinzenpalast in Berlin.
Itten leaves the Bauhaus. He is replaced by Moholy-Nagy.
First Klee exhibition in the United States, in New York.
Foundation in Weimar of the 6/ouen Vier group: Kandinsky, Klee, Feininger
and Javlensky.
Leon-Paul Fargue visits Klee in Weimar.
Voyage to Sicily ^Taormina, Mazzaro, Syracuse, Gela.
Klee gives a lecture in iena On Modern Art; it is not published until 1945.
On 26th December the Bauhaus is compelled to shut down in Weimar.
In Paris Andr Breton publishes the first Surrealist manifesto.
In April the teachers and pupils of the Bauhaus settle in Dessau.
Klee publishes his Pedagogical Sketches in the series Bauhaus-Bucher.
He has a second large exhibition of 214 works in Goltz's gallery.
He takes part in the first exhibition of Surrealist painters, which is held in

Klee passes the

Hanover he

1924

in

visits

Paris in the Galerie Pierre, along with Arp,

de Chirico, Max Ernst, Mir,

Picasso and others.

He

also has his first

one man exhibition

in

Paris in the Galerie Vavin-

Raspail.

Mondrian and Oskar Schlemmer publish books in the Bauhaus-Bucher

first The New Composition and the second on The Stage and the Bauhaus.
Klee goes to Italy Elba, Pisa, Florence and Ravenna.
Kandinsky publishes Point, Line and Surface in the Bauhaus.
The new Bauhaus building by Gropius in Dessau is opened.
Piet

the
1926

253

Publication of the

first

number

of the Bauhaus review, which continues

until 1932.

1927

1928

Klee stays on Porquerolles and in Corsica. On his way back he visits

Avignon.
Casi mi r Malevitch, the originator of Suprmatisme, publishes The World
of Non-Representation in the Bauhaus-Bucher.
Klee visits Brittany and Belle-Isle.
The Kleegesellschoft founded by the collector, Otto Rahlfs, of Brunswick,
offers him a trip to Egypt. He leaves on 17th December and does not
return until 17th January 1929. Itinerary Genoa, Alexandria, Cairo,
Gizeh, Luxor, Karnak, the Valley of the Kings, Thebes, Aswan, Elephant

Island, Syracuse,

Dessau.
the Bauhaus review he publishes Exact Experiments in the Reainn of Art.
Gropius and Moholy-Nagy leave the Bauhaus. The Swiss architect, Hannes
Meyer, becomes the new director.
Klee makes a journey to the South of France Carcassonne, Bayonne,
the Gulf of Gascony with an excursion to San Sebastian and Pamplona.
For his fiftieth birthday the Flechtheim Gallery in Berlin organizes a large
exhibition of his works.
Exhibition in the Galerie Bernheim Jeune in Paris.
Will Grohmann publishes a monograph in the Cahiers d'Art in Paris.
Oskar Schlemmer leaves the Bauhaus.
Klee spends some time in the Engadine and at Viareggio.
Another exhibition in Flechtheim 's gallery.
Exhibition in the Museum of Modern Art, New York.
He becomes a member of the committee and jury of the Deutcher KunstlerIn

1929

1930

bund.

The

architect Mies van de Rohe, succeeds

Hannes Meyer

as

director of

the Bauhaus.
1931

On

1st

April Klee terminates his contract with the Bauhaus and accepts

him by the Dusseldorf Academy. He finds Campendonck

the other professors there is Matisse's former pupil, Oskar
Moll, as well as the sculptors Alexander Zschokke and Ewald Matar.
Klee makes a second journey to Sicily Syracuse, Ragusa, Agrigento,
Palermo and Monreale.
Journey to Switzerland and ftaly (Venice).
Klee sees an exhibition of Picasso at the Kunsthaus, Zurich. Under pressure
a chair offered to

there.

Among

1932

from the Nazis the Bauhaus leaves Dessau and

settles in Berlin (Freies

Bauhaus).
1933

254

Journey to the Midi Saint Raphael, Hyres, Port-Cros.

Klee is violently attacked by the Nazis and is finally dismissed.
About Christmas time he leaves Germany and settles permanently

HE GOES PAST SUSPICIOUSLY.

1939. Klee-Stiftung, Berne.

255

Switzerland.
sister are

He once more

still

installs

himself

in

Berne where

his father

and

living.

Kandinsky also leaves Germany. Henceforth he

will live at Neuilly-sur-

Seine near Paris.

1934

1935

Klee exhibition in England at the Mayor Gallery, London.

Kahnweiler becomes Klee's dealer.
Grohmann publishes a collection of his drawings in Germany; the book
is confiscated by the Nazis.
Large retrospective exhibition in the Kunsthalle, Berne.
First symptom of the illness
sclerodermia which will lead to his death
First

five years later.

1936

1937

His illness depresses. him and he works little. He takes treatment at

Tarasp and Montana without appreciable results.
Feininger leaves Germany and returns to the United States.
Klee resumes his work.
Stay at Ancona where he visits the widow of Franz Marc.
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, who lives near Davos, comes to see him as do
Picasso and Braque.
He sees Kandinsky for the last time on the occasion of an exhibition of
Kandinsky 's work in the Kunsthalle, Berne.
The Nazis include seventeen works by Klee in the exhibition of "degenerate art"
at first in Munich and later in other German cities. They confiscate 102 of them from public collections and auction them.
Klee is represented at the Bauhaus exhibition organized by the Museum
of Modern Art, New York.
He exhibits in New York at the Buchholtz and Nierendorf Galleries
and in Paris at Kahnweiler's and Carre's.
Klee rests by a lake near Berne.
He visits the exhibition of masterpieces from the Prado at Geneva and
greatly admires El Greco, Goya, Bosch and Breughel.
German troops invade Poland on 1st September. Felix Klee is called up.
Large Klee exhibition in the Kunsthaus, Berne, of works dated 1935-1940.
Death of Klee's father.
On 0th May, Klee enters the Sanatorium at Orsolina near Locarno.
On 8th June, he is moved to the Sant' Agnese Clinic at Muralto-Locarno.
On 28th June he dies there of paralysis of the heart.
On 1st July he is cremated at Lugano.
On 4th July afuneral service is held in the Hopital des Bourgeois, Berne.
In September the urn containing Klee's ashes is interred in the Schloss-

1938

1939

1940

1942

halde cemetery

256

in

Berne.

Catalogue
of Principal Worl<s

Zwei Manner, einander in hoherer Stellung

vermutend, begegnen sich. 1903.

2.

3.

Die Schwester des

Kunstlers.

4.

1903.

Komiker

I.

1904.

5.

6.

I.

Elfenau,

Lily

Klee.

Berne.
3.

The
6.

7.

1905.

2.

Two Men

Lily

Klee.

7.

mit

der

Giesskanne.

1905.

1905.

Higher Rank.
meet, each supposing the other to be of
4.

Artist's Sister.

Gartenszene

Drohendes Haupt.

Comedian

Garden

I.

5.

Menacing Head.

Scene with Watering-can.

259

a'

ir

Y
I

8.

Blumenmtdchen mit kleinen

Farbflecken.

I.

13.

1909.

Ansichf von Saint-Germain.

Motiv aus

Young

Hamammet.

Flower-girl wifti Stippling.

13.

Motif from

1914.

1914.

II.

260

Mannlicher Kopf, jugendlich,

mit blauen Augen. 1910.

9.

View

Hamammet.

12.

14.

9.

Hommage

Head

of

14.

Hommage

Man
12.

Mutter und

Teppich der Erinnerung.

Picasso. 1914.

young

of Saint-Germain.

10.

15.

with blue Eyes.

Kind

191'

Stadtischie

10.

Darstellung.

Mother and Child.

Carpet of Memory.

Picasso.

15.

1913.

Representation of a City.

1915.

*'ii

^ilP
16.

Der Niesen.

&
17.

1915.

f,:^

Kakendaemonisch.

1916.

rna^.

<>

#1
.

Farbenwinkel.

1917

19.

20. Mit

Composition mit Symbolen, 1917.

dem

Halbmond

gelben

und blauen Stern.

1917.

0A^wm
21.

Ab

evo.

16.

Colour Corner.

19.

The Niesen.

Composition
21.

Fest auf

12.

1917.

witti

Ab Ovo.

17.

Symbols.
22.

dem Wasser.

1917.

Kakendaemonischi.
20.

Festival

With

the

yellow

half

Moon and

blue Star.

on the Water.

261

23.

Einsiedelei.

24. Mit

1918.

dem

Adler.

191

r
i

HP^

25.

Dreitakt. mit der Drei.

28.

26. Villa R.

1919.

Abstrakt mit Vollmond.

262

29.

Hermitage.

Three-part Time.
28. Abstract

27.

1919.

1919.

23.
25.

:*".

with

26.
full

Villa R.

Moon.

24.

With
27.

ttie

Ankunft der Gaukler. 1920.

Eagle.

Composition with the

29. Arrival

Composition mit dem

Letter

of the Ballad Singers.

B.

I!

iiwiiH Lj^-i"^
!

y^ wfi
'

(ii^li

30.

Bob.

1920.

32.

Rhythmische Baumlandschaft. 1920.

^^S

34.

33.

Hngende

Fruchte.

1921

35,

Zimmerperspektive mit
Einwohnern. 1921.

30.

33.

Perspective of a

Bob.

Room

Keramisch

Erotisch

Religis

(Die Gefasse der Aphrodite).

31.

Schoo!.

with Inmates.

32.

34.

Rhythmical Landscape with

Hanging

Fruits.

35.

Trees.

Ceramic

Erotic

Religious

(The Vessels of Aphrodite).

263

1921.

36.

Gedenkblatt fur Lieschen.

1921.

38.

40.

39.

Blutenantlitze.

36.

264

1922.

1922.

Souvenir
39.

Die Zwitschermaschine.

Face

Sterbende Pflanzen. 1922.

41.

for

of

Lieschen.

a Flower.

37.

Scene from

40.

Die Heilige. 1921,

Hoffman-like

The Twittering Machine.

Tale.
41.

38.

Dying

The

Plants.

Saint.

42.

44.

Drei Hauser.

Schwankendes Gleichgewicht.

1922.

43. Mystische Miniature.

45. Architektur

46.

(Gelb-violett

gestufte Kuben).

1922.

1922.

Bouchredner (Rufer im Moor).'

1923.

1923.

'^Ip'l
47. Assyrisches Spiel.

42.

Unstable Equilibrium.
47.

Assyrian

Three Houses.

45. Architecture

Game.

48.

1923.

48.

(Piled yellow
Battle

Kampfszene aus der komischphantastischen

Oper ' Der Seefahrer ". 1923.

43. Mystical

and

Miniature.

violet Cubes).

46. Ventriloquist

Scene from the comic-fantastic Opera "

Man

shouting

The Seafarer

in

".

265

the Bog.

49.

17

IRR 1923.

50.

tffrih'iiiilMi

ill

>i,Ai>*

Perspektive mit offener Ture. 1923.

:t*:

m\

51.

Eros.

54.

1923.

52.

Sonnen-und

49.
51.

Mondblumen.

17 (IRR) (Note: irr

Eros.

52. Ttie
54.

Sun and

Lomolarm.

1923.

lost.

55.

mad).

50.

Weeping Man.

Moon

Flowers.

At

ttie

Tideland

Berg des Stieres. 1923.

Wattenmeer (Baltrum).

Perspective witti open

53.
55.

Am

53.

1923.

Mountain of

1923.

Door.

ttie

Bull.

at Baltrum.

266

HP! ^H

yf^-^^-^:::^r---^

K?^M

i.

^^H

,.:;:?g3jj:;t|^^J

57. Wasserpflanzenschriftbild.

1924.

mSHMHHHI

56.

58.

Schauspielermaske. 1924.

Kleine

Winterlandschaft
Skildufer.

60.

Felsen

am

dem

59.

Meer. 1924.

56. Actor's
58.

mit

Zeichensammlung.

1924.

Gebirge im Winter.

1925.

1924.

Little

Mask.

61.

57. Script Picture

Winter Landscape with

60. Cliffs

by the Sea.

Skier.
61.

Water

Plants.

59. Collection

Mountains

in

of Signs.

Winter.

267

62. Mystisch

Keramisch

der Art eines Stillebens). 925.

(in

63.

64.

Urn den

Fisch.

Kopfprofil.

1925.

1926.
65.

Hetare auf ihrem Lager. 1926.

:^.

66.

Abfahrt der

Schiffe.

1927.

67.

62. Mystic
64.

66.

268

Around

ttie

Fish.

The Ships depart.

Ceramic.
65.

Variationen

(progressives

63. Profile.

Hetaera on her Couch.

67. Variations

Progressive Motif.

Mofiv).

1927.

>o.

1927.

^.veihgel-Stadt.

69.

Zeiten der Pflanzen. 1927.

/|#|#|# %

f9,t

r -

70. Pastorale

73.

(Rhythmen).

Italienische Stadt.

71.

1927.

74.

1928.

68. City
70.

73.

Italian

Pastorale

Town.

Die Sonne

on two

Rhythms.
74.

Auserwdhlte

streift

69.

75.

1929.

Times of

ttie

1928.

Nichtkomponiertes im Raum. 1929.

Plants.

Panorama.

Site.

72.

Old Town

the Plain.

75.

Uncomposed Objects

Chosen

The Sun sweeps

72. Alte Stadt Ueberblick.

1927.

die Ebene.

Hills.

71.

Sfatte.

in

Space.

269

76.

Ein

Kreuzfahrer.

77.

1929.

79.

Irrende Seele.

Hauptweg und Nebenwege.

80.

1929.

78.

1929.

Vor dem Schnee.

Clown.

1929.

1929.

\ZSA

'^^^i^m

81.

Nekropolis. 1929.

82.

76.

Crusader.
79.

81.

270

Gewagt wagend.

77.

Wandering

Necropolis.

P^'^^^'^'
^^^^
83.

1930.

Highway and Byways.

Soul.
82.

80.

78.

Clown.

Before the Snow.

Calmly daring.

83.

Twins.

Zwillinge.

1930.

84.

86.

Urn

sieben

Pop und Lok im Kampf.

Ciber

Ddchern.

1930.

1930.

87.

85.

Physiognomien von Querschnitten. 1930.

Haus, aussen und innen. 1930.

Rhythmisches.

1930.

mm:

89. Winterbild.

84.
86.

Seven

o'clock

1930.

90.

Pop and Lok

above

the

89.

85.

fighting.

Roofs.

Winter

87.

inside

Picture.

Sechs Arten. 1930.

Physiognomies of Cross-sections.

and Outside of a House.

88

Rhythmical.

90. Six Types.

271

91.

Segelnde

Stadt.

1930.

Nekropolis.

92.

1930.

93.

Individualisierte

Hohenmessung

der Lagen. 1930.

94.

Bdume im Oktober.

1931.

95. Ein Stich.

1931

T-^

96. Schach.

91

Floating

Town.

1931.

97.

92.

Necropolis.

94.

Trees

96.

272

in

Check

93.

October.
!

97.

Individualised
95.

Ao

932.

Measurement of

Stitcti.

Ad Parnassum.

Fuf tiubbum.

the Beds

-r-

98. Tdnzerin.

101.

103.

1932.

Pflanzen

analytisches.

Pflanzen Schriftbild. 1932.

Kleiner blauer Teufel. 1933.

98.
101.
103.

99.

Little

Dancer.

104.

99.

Plant Script Picture.

blue Devil.

104.

1932.

102.

Der

Plants

KiJnftige.

The Man

Small

105.

100.

1932.

Frauenmaske.

1933.

Arab Song.

Town among

of the Future.

Arabischcs Lied.

Kleine Felsenstadt. 1932.

1933.

analytic.

102.

100.

the Rocks.
105.

Female Mask.

273

106.

108.

Dame und

Tier.

1933.

107.

Botanisches Theater. 1934.

Angst. 1934.

109.

Blhendes. 1934.

NI. W-geweihtes Kind. 1935.

I

IO.

Trouernd. 1934.
I

106.

274

IO.

Mourning.

Lady and Animai.

108.

Botanical

III.

Child

107.

Theatre.

consecrated

109.
to

12.

Dame

Dtmon. 1935.

Fear.

Blossom.

(Woe).

112.

Dame Demon.

113.

16.

Zeichen auf

dem

Feld.

Labiler Wegweiser.

119.

114.

1935.

1937.

17.

Ueberschach.

Gedanken an Nachkonnnnenschaft.

16.

13.

Signs

in

119.

1936.

17.

14.

1937.

120.

1937.

the Field.

Unstable Signpost.

Betroffene Stadt.

Stricken

Super-check

Thoughts on our Descendants.

120.

18.

Zeichen

18.

15.

in

Gelb.

1937.

Ein Blick aus Aegypten. 1937.

Harmonisierter Kampf.

Town.
!

15.

1937.

Yellow Signs.

Glance from Egypt.

Harmonised Struggle.

275

121.

122.

Garten im Orient. 1937.

124.

\ r
126.

123.

1937.

125.

Sextett der Genien. 1937.

Revolution

BiJtinenlandschaft.

des

Viaduktes.

1937.

1937.

^^
1

Bilderbogen.

V
1937.

121. Oriental

127.

Garden.
124.

126.

276

Beginnende Kuhle.

Picture Page.

122.

Coelin-Frucht.

Early Chill.

Sextet of Spirits.
127.

Azure

125.
Fruit.

128.

1938.

123.

Park

Revolution of the Viaduct.

Stage Landscape.
128.

Park near

(-ucerne).

bei L (-uzern).

1938.

129.

Rote Weste.

132.

1938.

Timider Brutaler.

130.

Zerbrochener

Schlssel.

1938.

1938.

133.

I3i.

Vorhaben

Mach

(EntwurQ.

rechts nach links. 1938.

1938.

^
%

'

134.

Tnze vor Angst.

129.

134.

1938.

135.

Das Frulein vom

132.

Broken Key.

Red Waistcoat.

Dancing

Cj^df

130.

for Fear.

Sport. 1938.

Brutal but timid.

135.

Miss Sport.

133.

136.

131.

Werbeblatt-der Komiker. 1938.

To. Right and

Left.

Intention.
136.

Poster for Comedians.

277

^
138.

"7

Die Vase.

1938.

Per Graue und

142.

Rausch.

die

Kuste.

141.

The grey Man and

Insula

Dulcamara.

The Vase.

the Coast.

138.
140.

Intoxication.

Rich

Insu'a

Daemonie.

1939.

Harbour

Dulcamara.

143.

1938.

Fruchte cuf Blau. 1938.

143.

142.

278

1938

1939.

137.
139.

1938.

*i

140.

139.

Hafen.

^^

u
137.

Reicher

Possessed.

141.

Fruits

on blue.

144.

Ernste Miene.

*ILll|Mipj,l|L|JI

147.

La

M.

1939.

145.

1939.

150. Assel

Kerzen-Flammen.

148.

im Gehege. 1940.

144. Stern Visage.

La

146.

Wachsamer

Engel. 1939.

fs^

Belle Jardiniere.

147.

Unterwassergarten. 1939.

145.

Belle Jardiniere.
150.

Woodlouse

151. Stilleben

Underyvater Garden.

148.
in

149.

1939.

Candle and Flames.

Enclosure.

151. Still-life

146.

am

Heilige aus einem

Schalttog.

Fenster.

1940.

Guardian Angel.

149.

Stained-glass Saint.

on Leap Day.

279

1940.

Maske.

158.

152.

155.

Woman

in

Alea

1940.

jacta.

National Costume.
158.

280

Mask.

159.

153.

Captive.
|56.
159.

Tod und Feuer.

154.

Flora of the

Death and

1940.

Drummer.
Rocks.

Fire.

157.

Sailor.

Klee's Writings
At

In
1923, another of Klee's essays,
V^ays of Studying Nature (Wage des

a very early age Klee felt the

down

note

need to

the reflections inspired by

experiments and by his artistic

At first he confided them to
his Diary, which he began in 1898 and in
which amongst other matters, he
his

creations.

narrates the events of his

life,

tells of

his

love affairs, of his friendships, of

his

efforts to

impress people, of

enthusiasms and of

his

his

drinking bouts.

This Diary, which allows us to trace his

intellectual,

tion

up to

moral and

been pubson Felix (Europa Verlag,

interesting

It

an

is

exceptionally

document.

From November

1911

Two years

Decem-

Albert Langen, Munich,

the Bauhausbucher (No.
2) (Bauhaus Books), the Padagogische
Skizzenbuch, an extract from lectures
which Klee was giving at the Bauhaus.

An

and musical

capital

to the review Die Aipen, pub-

life in

the Bavarian

lished in Berne.
In

German

an

by Robert Delaunay on Light

(Uber das Licht), which the review Der

Sturm published in Berlin in 1913, in its
January number (No. 144/145, Vol. 3).
In 1918 he began to write Creative
Confession {Sclipferische Konfession),
the first of a series of five essays; they
are mostly very brief but full of happy,
stimulating formulations and, apart

from Klee's own art, explain a great

deal of Modern Art generally. Creative
Confession appeared in 1920 in the
Tribune der Kunst und Zeit (Tribune of
the Times), Vol.

in

edition was

New York
under the

Gallery,

XIII,

edited by Kasimir

Edschmid (publisher, Erich Reiss, Berlin). Part of it was translated into English under the title Paul Klee, 2nd edit.,
Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1945.^

published

in

by the Nierendorf
title

Pedagogical

Sketch Book (translation by Sibyl Peech).

In

928, the Bauhaus review (No. 2/3)

published

Precise

Experiments

the

in

Realm of Art, parts of which were reproduced in English under the title Pou/
in

the Baushaus 1919-1928,

of Modern Art, New York, 938.

lecture Uber die Moderne Kunst (On

Museum

Modern Art) which Klee gave

at

the Jena

Museum and which

cularly important,

1912, he translated into

article

in

English

1944

ber 1912, Klee contributed articles on

artistic

in Staat-

1919-1923.

later,

published

Klee Speaks
until

Weimar,

Bauhaus,

liches

artistic evolu-

1918, has recently

by his
Zurich, 1957).
lished

Natur-Studiums), was published

in

1924

in
is

parti-

was published only

1945 by Benteli, Berne-Bumpliz.

English

translation

by

entitled

On Modern

Art,

Paul

The

Findlay,

with an intro-

duction by Herbert Read, was published

in 1937 by Faber and Faber, London,
whilst a "French adaptation" by Pierre

Algaux was published in Brussels

1948 (Editions de la Connaissance).

in

Like the four preceding essays, the

Jena Lecture has just been reproduced
in the book Das bildnerische Denken
(The Thought of the Plastic Artist),
which also contains the complete text
of the lectures delivered by Klee at the

Bauhaus from

1921 to 1922. This pro-

fusely illustrated

work

(edited

byJurg

Spillerand published by Benno Schwabe

&

Co.,

Basle Stuttgart,

1956)

strates in the clearest possible

demonway the
281

carefully

thought

out,

circumspect

nature of Klee's creative process and

with what discrimination he employed
the different means the artist uses to
express himself.
Klee also wrote:

2,

An

(On the value of Criticism)

the review Der Ararat

Publisher Goltz, Munich, 1921.

published

Principal Exhibitions

in

article

catalogue

zum

engraving or reproductions of drawings

or etchings.

reply to an enquiry Uber den Wert

der Kritik

No.

The Novices of Sais with 60

drawings. Curt Valentin, New York,
1949. A number of other works contain either a lithograph or an original
edition

on W. Kandinsky

in

the

of the Jubilaumsausstellung

Ceburstag von W. Kandinsky

(Jubilee Exhibition for the 60th birth60.

day of W. Kandinsky), Arnold Gallery,

Dresden, 1926.
An article on Emil Nolde in Festschrift zum 60. Ceburstag von E. Nolde,
Neue Kunst Fides, Dresden, 1927.
Eight of his poems have been reproduced by Carola Giedion-Welcker in
Poetesa I'ecart, Benteli, Berne-Bumpliz,
1946.

Up

experienced some
works accepted
and galleries. The

Klee

1912

to

difficulty in getting his

exhibitions

in

Munich Sezession exhibited

etchings

in

the intervention of his former teacher

Franz Stuck, but it rejected all his sousverres

1907 and accepted only three

in

of the six which he submitted

Berlin Sezession

Salon

in

908 and 1909.

one-man exhibition of 56
works from the years 1907-1910 was
His

held

first

Switzerland

in

in

Candide by Voltaire (26 drawings

executed in 1911), Kurt Wolff, Munich
1920. English edition: Pantheon Books,
New York, 1944.
Potsdamer Platz, oder die Naciite des
neuen Messias (Potsdamer Platz, or the
Nights of the New Messiah) by Curt
lithographs),
Corrinth
Georg
(10
Mller, Munich, 1920.
Fifty-one of his drawings have been
chosen as illustrations for Die Lehrlinge
zuSais (The Novices of Sais) by Novalis,
Benteli, Berne-Bumpliz, 1949, English

282

1910-191
in

I.

It

the Kunst-

halle in Berne, the Kunsthous, Zurich, a

gallery

Klee provided illustrations for:

1908.

in

was more accommodating, and he was admitted to its

The

was successively housed

Books illustrated by Klee

six of his

906, probably as a result of

in

V/interthur and the Kunst-

halie, Basle.
In 191 I, the Thannhauser Gallery in
Munich, which in the same year
organized thefirst publicshowingofthe

Blaue Reiter, exhibited a collection of his

drawings.
In

1912, he

took part

in

the Second

Exhibition of the 6/oue Reiter at the

Munich; in 1913, he
Sturm Callery in
1917, at the dada Callery in

Goltz Gallery

in

exhibited

the

Berlin;

in

at

Zurich.

From l9l9onwards and upto

advent to power

in

Hitler's

1933, there

were

numerous Klee exhibitions

in

Germany.

1919-1920, the Kestner Gesellschoft

In

(Kestner Society) in Hanover organized

one which included 122 of his works. A
few months later, the Goltz Gallery in
Munich which had just concluded a
contract with the
to

tations

show

more important

even

an

sent out invi-

artist,

of his paintings, with a catalogue

In 1925, the same gallery

presented a newcollection of more than
200 works. Then Alfred Flechtheim
became Paul Klee's dealer. He had

of 356 works.

shown

already
in

1920 and

him

160

works

same

year,

1930; 40

in

the

Dusseldorf

in

Now, he showed

1927.

Berlin: 56

in

1929;

works

his

in

in

in

1928; 150

in

1931. In the

Kunstverein

fur

die

the Callery Le Centaure welcomed him

to Brussels. In 1929 he had another
exhibition

in

Jeune). In

shown
in

at

New

Paris

{Callery Bernheim

1930, 63 of his

the

Museum

York.

exhibition of Degenerate Art, which

wards,

Klee exhibited
in
London
{Mayor Callery 1934 and 1935; London

Gallery 1939);

in

managed by the

Paris {Calerle Simon,

D. H. Kahnweiler

in

Dussel-

exhibited

also

at

1919 and

{Zinglers Kabinett

Frankfurt
1921), at

Cologne {Kunstverein 1921), at Wiesbaden {Nassauisclier Kunstverein 1922),

Berlin

{Coierie Fritz Gurlitt

1919);

Goldschmidt & Wallerstein 1922 and"

1926; Kronprinzenpalais 1923; Nationalgolerie

him

at

at

1924),

Fides 1924,
In

Brunswick {LandesDresden {Coierie

1926 and 1929), etc.

1930,

museunn

1921, the Wurthle Callery

Vienna.

in

1924, the

In

showed

Anonymous

Society of Nev^ York organized his first

exhibition
his first
in

in

the United States, while

in France took place

exhibition

1925

at

the

Vavin-Rospoil

(Berger and Daber).

he was represented
Pierre

in

Paris,

in

Surrealist painters.

Callery

the same year

at the Callery

In

the

first

group of

Three years

later.

Berne {Kunst-

in

935) at San Francisco (Museum of

1937); in New York {Buchhoitz
1

Callery,

Klee

in

Art

dealer,

1934-1938; Calerle

Ballay et Carre 1938);

works

new

artist's

halle

his

in

1937 they began to circulate in a number of German towns.) From then on-

Rheinlande und Westfalen (Art Associa-

dorf.

works were
Modern Art

From 1933 to 1940 he was no longer

given an opportunity of showing his
works in Germany. (However, the
Nazis hung 17 of his works in the

tion for the Rhineland and Westphalia)

exhibited 252 of

of

Curt Valentin 1938; Nierebdorf

Caller ies 1938 and

cities

1940) and

in

other

of the United States, finally

in

Zurich {Kunsthaus 1940).

The war slowed down the rhythm of
exhibitions.
In
Europe, under the
German occupation, there was no
questions of exhibitions of works by
Klee. After the artist's death, however,
retrospective exhibitions were organ-

in Berne {KunstZurich {Kunsthaus 1940-

ized in Switzerland
halle 1940), in

drawings and etchings only),

{Kunsthalle

1941).

some of them
between

Other

and

1945

{Leicester Calleries 1914), in

&

{Bucholz

Museum
Callery,

Basle

retrospective, took place

1940

Nierendorf

in

exhibitions,

Willard
Callery

in

London

New York

Callery

1940,

and

1942,

1941

of Modern Art 1941, Bucholz

in
1943).
Curt Valentin

283

Chicago

Club

{Arts

Francisco

1941),

{Museum of Art

San

in

1941),

Philadelphia {Art Alliance 1944), etc.

With the return

of

exhibitions increased

1945

nunnber. They

in

at

Lucerne

and

1948),

were organized
Rosengart

Klee

peace,

{Calerle
Basle

in

Moderne 1945 and 1949),

Berne {Kunstmuseum 1947), Zurich

{Calerle d'Art
in

{Kunsthaus
d'Art

1948),

Paris

in

Allendy

1948,

Moderne

1948;

Colette

{Calerle

Musee National
Calerle

Jeanne

Bucher 1950; Caller le Berggruen

1953, 1955; Calerle

1952,

Simone Heller 1956).

There were Klee exhibitions in Munich

{Coierie StangI 1948; Haus der Kunst
1949 and 1950)

Museum

1948);

in

Kunsthalle 1949),

Otto Ralfs

Dusseldorf {Hetjens

in

Mannheim

1949),

{Stadtische

Brunswick {Calerle

in

in

Hanover {Kestner

Cesellschaft 1952 and

and else-

1954),

where.
Retrospective exhibitions were also

the Palais des Beaux-Arts in

Brussels and at the Amsterdam Muni-

held

in

cipal

Museum

1948 and

National Callery

in

1957,

London

Venice Biennale 1948, and

1953, as well as in a

at

the

1945, at the
in

Sao Paulo

number

of Ameri-

can cities {Beverly Hills 1948;

Bibliography

in

Museum

The

first

books devoted to Klee were:

the Sturm

(Sturm-Picture

Bilderbuch

1918 (15 drawings). Soon

afterwards, there appeared Paul Klee

Book) No.

3,

by Hans von Wedderkop (Klinkhardt

& Biermann, Leipzig, 1920, vol. 13 of
the collection junge Kunst (Young Art)
(16 pages and 33 illustrations); Paul

Werk, Ceist (Paul Klee:

Spirit) by Leopold
Zahn (Kiepenheurer, Potsdam, 1920,
87 pages, 69 illustrations); Koiruan,
Oder eine Ceschlchte von Maler Klee und
Klee: Leben,

Life,

Works and

von der Kunst dieses Zeitalters (Kairuan,

or a Tale of Klee, the Painter, and the
Art of Today) by Wilhelm Hausenstein
(Kurt Wolff, Munich, 1921, 134 pages,
42 illustrations). At a time when
admirers of Klee were rare, these
works enthusiastically stressed the

importance of Klee's work and brought

out the original traits in his personality.
see no one

"I

Germany", wrote
has so many new

in

Wedderkop "who
things to say."
In

1929, Will

Grohmann

published

Paul Klee, a collection of appreciations

by Louis Aragon,

Paul

Eluard,

Ren

of Modern Art, New York 1949-1950;

etc.). Finally the Kunstmuseum in Berne

Tristan Tzara, Roger Vitrac (Editions

showed

des

Klee's

in

1956 the biggest selection of

works ever shown together:

756 paintings, water-colours, pastels,

drawings, etchings and sculptures.

Crevel, Jean Lur^at, Philippe Soupault,

91

Cahiers

d'Art,

Paris,

27

pages,

illustrations).

After Klee's death, Benteli, Berne,

made by Hans

published the speeches

Bloesch

and

Georg Schmidt

at

his

Reden zu seinem
1940 (Paul Klee,
Todestag, 29 Juni
Speeches on the Day of his Death, 29th
June 1940) (18 pages, 5 illustrations).
In 1950, Five Essays on Klee, by Merle

funeral,

284

Paul

Klee,

How-

Armitage, Clement Greenberg,

Devree,
Nancy Wilson
ard

Ross

which we are faced when confronted

with

his art;

in

New York

reproductions

In

the

(18 pages, 5 illustrations).

the same year there was published

first book which attempted to

retrace the painter's evolution and to

demonstrate
Paul

art:

importance

the

Klee,

Wege

of

his

bildnerischen

a subtle,

book

interprets his paintings

it

and James Johnson Sweeney, were

published by Duell, Sloan & Pearce,

convincing manner. The

also includes a large

Klee's

some

painting

position with

of

bring

eloquent juxta-

into

works

number

of which

of Picasso, Braque,

Kandinsky, Mir and others.

Will Grohamm, who knew the artist
personally for

some twenty

years, and

whom

Denkens (The Plastic Artist's Modes

of Thought), by Werner Haftmann
(Preste! Verlag, Munich,
178 pages,
36 illustrations). This study was succeeded in 1952 by the English edition
Klee
of Paul
by Carola GiedionWelcker (The Viking Press, New
York, 156 pages illustrated). In 1954,
the same work was published in
German (its original text) by Gerd

to

Hatje, Stuttgart (204 pages,

Kohlhammer,

he discusses Klee's work as a teacher

and summarizes both his theoretical
discourses and his lectures. The work
is abundantly illustrated. The French

illustrations;

edition contains (in addition to Groh-

trations). Will

graph

was

German

Grohmann's

also

published

W.

Edition:

Stuttgart, 447 pages,

French

486

edition:

486

Flinker,

172

large

illus-

mono1954:

in

454

pages,

illustrations; English edition.

Haftmann 's book

is

in

the nature of

an introduction to Klee's method.

He

with great penetration the

artist's concepts of the artist,
his
creative processes and the broad outanalyses

Klee himself suggested, in

935 that he should write a monograph,

produced a monumental work divided

into three parts. Making use of Klee's
Diary and Letters as well as of his own
memories, he begins with a detailed
biography of the artist. He then makes
a lengthy and penetrating study of the
different aspects of his art, describes

genesis and explains

its

its

scope. Finally,

mann's text) a preface by Henri

Michaux {Aventures de Lignes (Adventures with Line)) and a graphological
portrait by Ania Teillard.
For some years there have been
available a large number of books
offering a choice of black and white or

Klee's writings and his lecture notes as

coloured reproductions with introductions of varying lengths. They are

well as on his works.

given below

lines of his evolution, basing

himself on

Carola Giedion-Welcker's book is

at once more brief, more concise and
more solidly based on historical information. Full of intelligence and
authority, it highlights all the essentials. It sets out the principal problems
which preoccupied the painter or with

in

chronological order.
Klee,

Gallimard,

Peintres

Nouveaux

Ren Crevel, Paul

Paris,

1930, Coll.

37 illustrations); Will
pages,
(63
Grohmann, Handzeichnungen (DrawKiepenings) 1921-1930, Muller &
I.

heuer,

Berlin,

illustrations),

1934
English

(30

pages.

Edition:

74

The
285

Drawings of Paul Klee, Curt Valentin,

New

York, 1944 (20 pages, 73

tions),

New German

illustra-

edition, Mijiler

&

Kiepenheuer, Bergen, 1948; Karl NiePaul Klee, Paintings, Water-

rendorf,

Oxford University
York, 1941. Curt Valentin,

colours, 1913 to 1939,

New

Press,

New

Kahnweiler,
E.

S.

1950 (32 pages, 24

Palettes).

Grohmann.

Will

tions);

Handzeichnungen,

and

Paris,

New York

(Coll.
illustra-

Paul

Klee,

Wies-

Insel-Verlag,

baden, 1951 (13 pages, 40 illustrations);

Pierre Courthion, Klee, Fernand Hazan,

2nd edition Museum of Modern

Paris,
1953, Bibliotque Aldine des
Arts (6 pages, 20 illustrations); Will

New

York, 1947; Georg Schmidt,

Ten Reproductions

Grohmann,

ings

dessins

in Facsimile of Pointby Paul Klee, V^ittenborn, New

York, 1946 (10 pages, 10 illustrations);

German edition Holbein-Verlag, Basle,
Ten Facsimile
1946; Georg Schmidt,
:

Reproductions of Works

Watercolour

in

and Tempera, Holbein Verlag, Basle,

1948(14 pages, 10 illustrations), Bruno
Alfieri, Paul Klee, Instituto

Editoriale,

Venice,

illustrations);

1948

Hans

pages,

Tipografico

(25 pages, 6

Friedrich

Paul Klee, Hauswedell,

(46

Braun,

Klee,

Harmann,

illustra-

York, 1945 (26 pages, 45

tions),
Art,

pages, 32 illustrations); Daniel-Henry

Geist,

Hamburg, 1948

illustrated);

Felix

Klee,

Paul

Klee,

aquarelles

et

watercolours and
drawings), Bergguen, Paris, 1953 (21
pages,

(Paul

Klee,

Georg Schmidt,

illustrated);

bringt

Angel

makes the Wish come

Woldemar

das

(An

Cev/unschte

Engel

true),

Baden-Baden, 1953
with commentary);
A. Forge, Paul Klee, Faber & Faber,
London. 1954 (24 pages, 72 illustra(12

Klein,

illustrations

Marcel

tions);

Somogy,

Brion.

1955

Paris.

illustrations);

Magic

Klee,

(23

Aimery

pages,

Joseph-Emile

72

Muller,

Paul Klee,22 Zeichnungen (22 drawings),

Klee,

Eidos Presse, Stuttgart, 1948 (4 pages,

22 illustrations); Herbert Read, Klee

Georg Schmidt, Klee.

10 Farbenlichtdrucke nach Werben der
Sommlung Doetsch-Benziger, Basel (Klee.
IO coloured prints of works in the

(1879-1940), Faber
1948

(24

pages,

&
II

Faber,

London,

illustrations);

Douglas Cooper, Paul Klee, Penguin

Books,
Harmondsworth,
1949
(16

286

Squares

(10

pages,

20

illustrations);

Doetsch-Benziger

Collection.

Phoebus-Verlag. Basle, 1956.

Basle),

Index of Works Reproduced

Entries are listed under the year in whicin they were produced. The numbers in
brackets following the titles are those given by the artist in the inventory of his
work. The figures in italic following the collection sources refer to the pages on
which the reproductions appear; the bold figures are the numbers of the illustrations in the Catalogue of Principal Works. Colour plates are indicated thus*.

1896

Arco
Arco

South

SiJdtirol

1906

(Uncatalogued).

Tyrol.
colour: 3|"x3f".

F.

Bildnis Lily Klee.

Drawing

and

water-

K. Collectiori, Berne.

Portrait of Lily Klee.

colour: 4|"x3|".
F. K. Collection, Berne.
Bildnis

1897
Elfenau,

6i"

Berne (Uncatalogued).

meines Vaters. (23)

Portrait of
Pencil;

12^x1

9".
F,

Drawing and water-

my

Father. Sous-verre, Chinese ink:

li".

K. Collection, Berne.

Klee-Stiftung, Berne.

1908
1898 (circa)
Skizzenbuchblatt.
Landscape from

Stilleben,
Still

Sketch-book.

Crayon

Blumenstocke und Vasen. (49)

Flower pots and Vases. Pencil:

Iirx7|".

6^x9^".

Life,

Klee-Stiftung, Berne.

Klee-Stiftung, Berne.

2
Vogelkafig auf der Saule. (60)
Bird-cage on the Column. Crayon: 8|"x6".

1903

Zwei Manner, einander

vermutend, begegnen

10

Klee-Stiftung, Berne.
in

hoherer Stellung

(Invention 6).
Two Men meet: Each supposing the other to
be of Higher Rank. Etching: ^"x7^".
2
sich.

Jungfrau im Baum (Invention 2).

Virgin in a Tree. Etching: 91" x If".
I

1909
Selbstzeichnung zu einem Holzschnitt. (39)

Drawing for
Self-portrait
Chinese ink: 5J"x5f".
F. K. Collection, Berne.

Woodcut.
I

Die Schwester des Kijnstlers (Uncatalogued).

The Artist's Sister. Oil on canvas: If'x 12^".
Klee-Stiftung, Berne.
3

Bern der industrielle Teil der Matte darijber

der Munsterturm. (50)
Berne Industrial Quarter with Cathedral
Tower. Chinese ink: 8J"x 10".
Klee-Stiftung, Berne.
8

1904

Junge Frau im Liegestuhl. (52)

Komiker
(Invention 4).
Comedian
Etching: 5|"x6J".
I.

I.

Young Woman
2rx4|".

in a

Deck

Klee-Stiftung, Berne.

1905

Drohendes Haupt. (Invention 10). (37)

Menacing Head. Etching: /^"xS^".
5
Lily
Klee. (32). Pencil and water-colour:

iirxsr.
F.

K. Collection, Berne.

Gartenszene mit der Giesskanne. (24)

Garden Scene with Watering-can. Watercolour sous verre: SJ" x 7^".
F.

K. Collection, Berne.

chair.

Ink-drawing:
12

Blumenmadchen mit kleinen Farbflecken. (13)

Young Flower-girl with stippling. Watercolour: 6^"x4f".
F.

K. Collection, Berne.

1910
Mannlicher Kopf, jugendlich, mit blauen
Augen. (96)
Youthful Male Head with blue Eyes. Ink and
water-colour: 5|"x3i".
F.

K. Collection, Berne.

287

Hannah.
C.

F.

(66).

Wash: 7i"x4i".

Schong Collection,

New

1911
Voltaire: 'Make way, nnake
end Colonel' {Candide,
Chinese ink: 4|"x9".
Klee-Stiftung, Berne.

York.

way

Motiv aus Hannannnnet. (48)

Motif from Hamannnnet. Water-colour
paper: 7|"x6i".

on

Richard Doetsch-Benz/ger Collection. Basle.

13

for the Rever-

Chapter

15).

(80)

Hommage

Picasso.

(192).

Oil

on canvas:

5" X II "Private Collection, Basle.

1

15

Munich. Bahnhof. (I 10)

Munich the Station. Drawing

in

Chinese ink:
14

3^"x7i".

14

1915
Stadtische Darsteiiung. (117)
Representation of a City.

Water-colour:

8^x41".
1912
Skizze einer stadtischen Strasse. (25)
Sketch of a Street in a Town. Chinese ink:

9rxl2r.
Klee-Stiftung, Berne.

16

1913

Mutter und Kind. (66)

Mother and Child. Water-colour: 3|"x4f".
F. C. Schang Collection, New York.
10
Kopfe. (128)
Heads. Chinese ink.

F.

Der Niesen, (250)

The Niesen. Water-colour, paper on
board: 7^x91".
Hermann Rupf Collection, Berne.

18

C.

Schang Collection,

New

i^^x^^".
19

York.

Menschliche Ohnmacht. (35)

Human Weakness. Chinese ink. 7"x3|".

23

Anatomy

(48)

Aphrodite.
chalk: 9"x7i".
of

Water-colour

on
17

K. Collection, Berne.

Katzen. (27)
Cats. Chinese ink: 4|"x6".
Klee-Stiftung, Berne.

13

Kakendaemonisch.

26

Water-colour on
mounted on cardboard

(73).

canvas, plaster base,

Im Steinbruch. (135)
the Quarry. Water-colour

ink:

1916

Klee-Stiftung, Berne.

In

16

Klee-Stiftung, Berne.

F.

Ein Stuckchen Eden. (161)

Fragment of Eden. Chinese ink:

card-

Die Blume als Liebesrequisit. (89)

The Flower as Object of Love. Chinese
41" X 9i".

Anatomie der Aphrodite.

Klee-Stiftung, Berne.

F.

15

K. Collection, Berne.

7rx9r.
on

paper:

Klee-Stiftung, Berne.

17,

8rx9r.
Klee-Stiftung, Berne.

1917
Farbenwinkel. (50)
Colour Corner. Water-colour: 7^"x5^".

1914
Kleiner Hafen. (146)
Little Port. Water-colour: 6f'x5i".
F.

K. Collection, Berne.

F.

Ansicht von Saint-Germain. (41)

View of Saint-Germain. Water-colour
paper: 8|"x I".
F. C. Schang Collection, New York.

20

on

18

K. Collection, Berne.

Composition mit Symbolen. (140)

Composition with Symbols. Pen and watercolour: 5"x5|".
F.

C.

Schang

Collection,

New

York.

19

\ |

Mit

dem

gelben Halbmond und blauen Stern.

(51)

Teppich der Erinnerung. (193)

Carpet of Memory. Oil on canvas: I5''x
Klee-Stiftung, Berne.

288

half Moon and blue

Water-colour: 6i"x8".
C. Schang Collection, New York.

With the yellow

I9|".

12

F.

Star.

20

Ab

ovo. (130). Water-colour on paper on

chalk, set on gauze backed with cardboard:

Sr'x

F.

dem Wasser.
on

Lithograph

the

30

21

Klee-Stiftung, Berne.

Festival

lorxzr.

lOi".

Fest auf

Versunkenheit. (I 13)
Meditation Self-portrait.

Villa R. (153). Oil on

Kunstmuseunrt, Basle.

(136)

Water-colour

Water.

paper: J^^xT.
C. Schang Collection,

New

Turm am Meer. (160)

Tower by the Sea. Chinese

cardboard:

I0rx8r.
26

on
22

York.

Composition mit dem

Composition with the
19^x151'.

B.

(156)

letter B. Oil

on canvas:

27

Klee-Stiftung, Berne.

ink: 3|''x5''.

22

Klee-Stiftung, Berne.

1918

Abstrakt mit Vollmond. (48)

Abstract with full Moon. Gouache: 3|"x5i".
F. C. Schang Collection, New York.
28

Einsiedelei. (61)

Water-colour and gouache on

backed with cardboard:

Hermitage.

canvas on chalk,

/fxlOi".
23

Klee-Stiftung, Berne.

Mit

dem

23

Private Collection, Berne.

Adler. (85)

With the

Water-colour on chalk on
paper, backed with cardboard: 6f"xlOi".
Klee-Stiftung, Berne.
24
Eagle.

Tiergarten. (42)

*Zoo. Water-colour, plaster base, paper on

cardboard: 6|"x9".
Klee-Stiftung, Berne.
24
Kleine Vignette an Aegypten. (33)
Vignette for Egypt. Water-colour:

Little

6rx3r.
F.

1920
Traumlandschaft mit Koniferen. (1 10)
Dream Landscape with Conifers. Watercolour, paper on cardboard: 5J"x8i''.

K. Collection, Berne.

21

Unter schwarzem Stern. (116)

Under a black Star. Oil on muslin

9^ x 6^*.

Richard Doetsch-Benziger Collection, Basle.

Phantastische Architektur mit
(146)

Architecture
Crayon: 6i"x8".

Fantastic

22

dem

Reiter.

the

Rider.

Ankunft der Gaukler.

29

Arrival of the Ballad Singers.

Bob. (33). Water-colour and oil-drawing on

paper, chalk base, backed with cardboard:

I5"x9r.
30

Private Collection, Milan.

Schulhaus. (23)
School. Oil on cardboard: I4|"x
Leigh B. Block Collection, Chicago.

If"

31

Rhythmische Baumlandschaft. (41)

Rhythmical Landscape with Trees.

Oil

cardboard.
Edgar Horstniann Collection, Hamburg.

on
32

Vogeldrama. (93)
Bird Drama. Coloured drawing: ZJ'x T.
The Solomon Guggenheim Museum, New York. 75
I

with

35

Klee-Stiftung, Berne.

Kind. (70)
Child. Indelible pencil: ^l''x^".
Klee-Stiftung, Berne.

Wunderbare Landung.

(192)

Miraculous Landing. Chinese ink: Zfxlli''.

38
Klee-Stiftung, Berne.
2

Zeichnung zu

'Pflanzen, Erd

und

Luftreich'.

(205)
'Plants, Earth and Kingdom of
the Air*. Chinese ink: 81" x7^".
39
Klee-Stiftung, Berne.

Drawing for

1919
Dreitakt, mit der Drei. (68)

Three-part Time. Water-colour: ITxS^".

25

Private Collection, Italy.

Schieiertanz. (34)

Kunstlerbildnis (Selbstportrat). (260)

Portrait of the Artist. Pen-wash 9' x SJ"The Pasadena Art Institute, California.

Dance of the

Veil.

Water-colour drawing:

7rxlOJ'.

31

Ibach Collection, Barmen.

42

289

Zeichnung zur Salome. (1 1-224)

Drawing for Salome. Pen-drawing
1

in

ink:

7rx7k".

(53)

29

Siegfried Rosengart Collection, Lucerne.

Antritt der Seereise. (193)

Departure

1922
Ausschnitt aus einem Ballett zur Aeolsharfe.

for

Voyage.

the

Chinese

Ink:

"Senecio. (181). Oil

/rxiirPrivate Collection, Berne.

34

Room with Inmates.

of a
Water-colour and oil drawing, paper on
cardboard: I9j"x 12^".

Perspective

Klee-Stiftung, Berne.

33

Tanz des trauernden Kindes. (186)

Dance of the sad Child. Pen-drawing 7f" x
:

Konzert auf dem Zweig. (188)

Concert on the Twig. Chinese

ink:

Klee-Stiftung, Berne.

Hangende Fruchte.

on

I^"x8|".
54

Hanging

Fruits. Water-colour, paper on cardboard: lOfxZ'.

34
Clifford Odets Collection, New York.

Keramisch Erotisch Religios (Die Gefasse

der Aphrodite). (97)
Ceramic Erotic Religious (The Vessels of
Aphrodite). Water-colour and oil, paper on
cardboard: I8|" x 12".
Klee-Stiftung, Berne.
35

Gedenkblatt fur Lieschen. (98)

Souvenir for Lieschen. Water-colour and ink,
paper on cardboard: I2i''x9''.
F. C. Schang Collection, New York.
36

Hoffmanneske Marchenszene. (123)

Scene from a Hoffman-like Tale.
lithograph: I2i"x9'.

Colour
37

Die Heilige. (107)

The

Saint. Water-colour and oil

paper on cardboard: IZfx 12^".
Pasadena Art Institute, California.

45

81"

Ph;7/p

121".

Goodwin

Collection.

drawing,

York.

41

Mystische Miniature. (156)

Mystical Miniature. Water-colour: 6|^"x7".
Siegfried Rosengart Collection, Lucerne.
43
Blutenantlitze. (57).
Faces of Flowers. Water-colour

on

paper:

Edgar Kaufmann,

New

39

York.

Die Zwitschermaschine. (151)

The Twittering Machine. Water-colour and
oil drawing, paper on cardboard: I6|"x 12".

Museum

of Modern Art,

New

40

York.

Schwankendes Gleichgewicht. (159)

Unstable Equilibrium. Water-colour,
on cardboard: I3f"x7".

paper

44

Klee-Stiftung, Berne.

Theater der Exoten. (120)

Exotics' Theatre. Drawing touched with
81" X

oil:

i".

37

Klee-Stiftung, Berne.

1923
Architektur

(Gelb-violett

gestufte

Kuben).

(62)

Architecture (piled yellow and violet Cubes).

Oil on canvas: 22^" x I4|".
45
Hermann Rupf Collection, Berne.

Bauchredner (Rufer im Moor). (103)

38

Mundes Kuss

(aus

Ventriloquist

Man

shouting

Douglas Cooper

in

Bog.

If".

Collection, Argilliers (Card).

46

(142)

the Kiss of his

Mouth

(from The Song of Songs). Water-colour and

Chinese ink: 6^" x9''.
Angela Rosengart Collection, Lucerne.

290

New

Drei Hauser. (59)

Three Houses. Water-colour, paper on cardboard: 8i"x I2i".
F. C. Schang Collection, New York.
42

Water-colour: I5|"x

dem 'Hohen Lied').

Let him kiss me with

15".

I3rx8r.

(70)

Er kijsse mich mit seines

I6"x

linen:

Basle.

8f".

48

Klee-Stiftung, Berne.

Kunstmuseum,

Sterbende Pflanzen. (82)

Dying Plants. Pen and water-colour on paper:

1921

Zimmerperspektive mit Einwohnern. (24)

"Fragment from a Ballet for the Aeolian Harp.

Water-colour: 9J"x 8".
Angela Rosengart Collection, Lucerne.
49

36

Assyrisches Spiel. (79)

Assyrian Game. Oil on cardboard,

on wood:

14^"

mounted

xlO^.

Private Collection, Berne.

47

Kampfszene aus der komisch-phantastischen

Zeichnung zur

Oper 'Der

Seefahrer'. (123)
Battle Scene from the comic-fantastic Opera
'The
Seafarer'.
Water-colour and oil

drawing on paper: I5"x20g".

Madame
Der

Kampfszene des Seefahrers.

(208)

Drawing for the

Crayon: 9i" x

Battle Scene in 'The Seafarer".

I3|".

53

Klee-Stiftung, Berne.

Trix Durst-Haass Collection, Basle.

48
Strasse im Lager. (146)

Seiltanzer. (121)

*Camp

*The

Tightrope-walker.
paper: 9rx 121".

on

Water-colour

Klee-Stiftung, Berne.

Water-colour

on

cardboard:

57

32

Nordsee-Bild. (246)

paper on

Water-colour,
board: I2"x ISf".

"North

Road.

I0"xl2r.
Rosengart Gallery, Lucerne.

Sea.

card-

Kind an der Freitreppe. (65)

Steps. Oil on paper: Bf" x

Child on the

I".

65

Private Collection, Berne.

52

Klee-Stiftung, Berne.

Landschaft mit gelben Vogeln. (32)

Materialisierte Gespenster.

(I

Landscape with yellow

1-24)

Materialised Ghosts. Water-colour: I4|"x

Siegfried Rosengort Collection, Lucerne.

68

on

paper:

IRR.

17

(136).

Water-colour

Srxlli".
Richard Doetsch-Benziger Collection, Basle.

Strenge der Wolken. (217)

Severity of the Clouds. Crayon.
F.

56

K. Collection, Berne.

Perspektive mit offener Ture. (143)

Perspective with open Door. Water-colour
and oil drawing, paper on cardboard:

IOi"x Of".
Hans Meyer Collection. Berne.
I

50

Eros. (115). Water-colour: 9J"x 13^"

Siegfried Rosengart Collection, Lucerne.

51

I7|".

Richard Doetsch-Benziger Collection, Basle.

Fiordiligi.

Sf
49

Water-colour

Birds.

and gouache on paper: I4"x

10".

>,

(95).

Chinese

ink

and

41

chalk:

i".

43

Angela Rosengart Collection, Lucerne.

1924
Baumblute. (56)
Blossom.* Pen-drawing: 9^"x

4".

58

Klee-Stiftung, Berne.

Aquarium mit Blausilberfischen. (211)

Aquarium with silvery-blue Fishes. Chineseink and wash: 7f"x8f".
Private Collection, Berne.

51

Das Kind. (63)

Child. Crayon: 9i"x 8i".
F. C. Schang Collection, New York.

47

The
Lomolarm. (172)
The weeping Man (L'Homme aux iarmes).
Water-colour on paper, wax base: I3"x9".
F.

C.

Schang Collection,

New

52

York.

Ann Berg des Stieres. (152)

At the Mountain of the Bui Water-colour
and oil drawing, paper on cardboard:

Reiher. (155)

Heron. Water-colour drawing: IT x5i

F, C. Schang Collection, New York.

50

11^x131".
Private Collection, Berlin.

Sonnen- und Mondblumen. (231)

Sun and Moon Flowers. Gouache: 41" x
F. C. Schang Collection, New York.

53

if".

54

Schlangenwege. (U.I 7)
"Snake Paths. Water-colour
linen: I8i"x25".

and

wax on
187

Private Collection, Berne.

Schauspielermaske. (252)
Actor's Mask. Oil on canvas: I4^"x 12^".
Sidney Janis Collection,

New

York.

56

Wattenmeer

(Baltrum). (263)
Tideland at Baltrum. Water-colour on paper:

6i"x8r.
Mrs. Marian Willard-Johnson Collection, Locust
Valley. U.S.A.

55

Bei

Taormina

(Scirocco). (220)

^Near Taormina (Sirocco). Water-colour on

paper: 5r'x9i".
60
Klee-Stiftung, Berne.

29

Karneval im Gebirge. (I 14)

Carnival in the Mountains. Water-colour on
paper: iO^'x 13".
77
Klee-Stiftung, Berne.
Wasserpflanzenschriftbild. (132)
Script-picture Water Plants. Water-colour
on paper: 9^" x llf"-

Lyonel Feininger Collection,

New

Afrikanische Dorfszene. (F.7)

African Village Scene. Pen-drawing:

Skilaufer.

(85)

Winter Landscape with Skier. Wateron cardboard: S^xSI".

colour, paper
F.

C.

New

Schang Collection,

64

Kleines Wurfelbild. (D.4)

Picture of Dice.

on

Oil

''Little

muslin:

I4i"xl2r.
Urvater Collection, Brussels.

81

C im Hafen. (K.5)
C in Harbour. Oil

and distemper on

Schiff

Little

Tx

57

York.

dem

Kleine Winterlandschaft mit

Private Collection, U.S.A.

58

York.

*Ship

II

II

chalk, on paper: I3j''x9i-''.

Private Collection, Berne.

Dorf mit dem steigenden Drachen. (Qu.5)

with

Village

7rx

Zeichensannmlung. (189)

72

rising

Kite.

Water-colour:

Ili"-

Angela Rosengart Collection, Lucerne.

90

Kleines Madchenbildnis in Gelb. (E.9)

Portrait of Girl in yellow. Oil
canvas: 9i"x8|-''.

on

Collection of Signs. Water-colour and pen:

9^x111"Private Collection, U.S.A.

Felsen
Cliffs

59

am Meer. (230)
by the Sea. Water-colour: 7^"x7|''.

Siegfried Rosengart Collection, Lucerne.

Little

F.

60

C.

New

Schang Collection,

Einsiedelei. (S.2)

Hermitage. Water-colour: 10^' x

F.

1925

and water-colour on

paper: 12^" x I5|".

Private Collection, Berne.

69

Gebirge im Winter. (3)

Mountains in Winter. Vapourized watercolour and brush, on cardboard: T'x I4f".
Hermann Rupf Collection, Berne.
6B

Keramisch
Mystic Ceramic.
Oil

(in

der

Art

on

cardboard:

eines

Stillebens). (B.8)

I2rxl8r.

Kopfprofil. (C.9)
on plaster: ^"
F. K. Collection, Berne.
Profile. Oil

BildnisbiJsten

Schang Collection,

(74)

59

Klee-Stiftung. Berne.

1926
Barbarisch-Klassisch-Festlich. (P.9)
Barbaric, Classical, Solemn. Ink and gouache

on paper: IIJ"x

14^".

99

Eric Estori ck, London.

Beschriebene Statte. (V.8)

Water-colour
Description of Place.

Chinese ink: 8''x

and

12".

New

F.

63

York.

Schang Collection,

ink:

New

I|"x5f".

66

York.

Frau vor der Geburt. (54)

Pregnant

Woman.

Chinese ink: IO|"x

Klee-Stiftung, Berne.

I6|'

61

Drachen-Kampf.

(S.5)

Fight with the Dragon. Chinese ink: 9''x 12^".

F.

Mrs. Charlotte Purcell, Chicago.

C.

ink

46

Crayon

110

62

lOJ".

Haus der Opera buffa. (M.6)

Theatre of the Opera-Bouffe.
coloured paper: 8g"x lOJ".

292

Skizze.

Kopf LJber Kopf. (V.O)

Head over Head. Chinese

Grotesken aus dem Circus V. (N.8)

Grotesques from the Circus. Chinese
wash: 5^" X lOJ".
C.

55

Angela Rosengart Collection, Lucerne.

Richard Doetsch-Benziger Collection, Basle.

F.

li*.

Sketch for a Portrait. Crayon: 6" xli".

Mystisch

K. Collection, Berne.

Vogel Pep. (T.7)

''The Bird called Pep. Oil

96

York.

C.

Schang

Collection,

New

York.

63

on

Botanischer Garten.
Botanical Garden. Pen-drawing: 9|"xl5|".

44

Klee-Stiftung, Berne.

71

Ausgang der Menagerie. (R.3)

Mondlied. (Q.3)

The Menagerie parades. Ink-drawing: 7"x

12".

74

Private Collection. Berne.

Song to the Moon. Crayon:

Abfahrt der

Idyllisch-nachbarlich. (E.4)

Neighbourly Idyll. Chinese ink: 5^" x

F. C. Schang Collection, New York.

10"

62

l|"x ISy.
93

Klee-Stiftung, Berne.
Schiffe.

(D.IO)

The Ships depart. Oil on

wood: I9rx23|".

canvas,

mounted on
66

Private Collection, Berne.

Urn den

Fisch. (C.4)

Around the Fish. Tempera and

I8r'x25r.
Museunn of Modern

Art,

New

oil

on canvas:
64

York.

Variationen (progressives Motiv). (Om.9)

Variations
Progressive Motif. Oil and watercolour on canvas.
67

Hetare auf ihrem Lager. (0.7)

Hetaera on her Couch. Pen-drawing with
water-colour: IO|"xl2J".
Richard Doetsch-Benziger Collection, Basle.
65

Max

1927
Tiere bei Vollmond. (V.8)

Times of the

Zweihugel Stadt. (Y.4)

City on two Hills. Pen-drawing and watercolour on cardboard: IO^"x I4|".

68

Fischer Collection, Stuttgart.

79

Zeiten der Pflanzen. (Om.6)

Plants. Oil and water-colour on
canvas: I5|"x20i".
David Thompson Collectior], Pittsburg.
69

a Rose. Chinese ink: I2"x4^''."

Rosengart Gallery, Lucerne.
82

Pastorale (Rhythmen). (K.IO)

Pastorale Rhythms. Oi on canvas 27^" x 20^".
70
A^useum of Modern Art, New York.

Orientierter Mensch (B.6)

Orientated Man. Chinese ink: I2j"x9i".

Auserwahlte

Animals at full Moon. Pencil: Sf^xZ*.

C. Schang Collection, New York.

F.

Rosenzwerg. (G.

I)

Dwarf with

Private Collection, U.S.A.

Regen. (0.9)
Rain. Chinese ink:

II

fx

83

18^".

Klee-Stiftung, Berne.

87

Statte. (X.8)

Pen and water-colour: I8j"x

Theodor Werner Collection, Berlin.

Chosen

Site.

Klang der SiJdlichen Flora. (W.7)

of the southern Flora.
colour on paper: 9" x
J".

Cote de Provence

6.

71

Water-

Resonance

12".

118

(X.4)

Coast of Provence. Water-colour

C. Schang Collection, New York.

If
88

F.

Vollmond.
*Full
I

Beride (Wasserstadt). (O. )

Beride (Aquatic Town). Chinese

Moon.

or X

(L.3)

Oil and

gouache on plaster base:

13".

85

Privale Collection, Berne.

ink:

Die grosse Kuppel. (43)

6^ X 81".
Klee-Stiftung, Berne.

80

The great Dome. Chinese

ink: \0^"

l|".

67

Klee-Stiftung, Berne.

Segelschiffe leicht bewegt. (E.9)

Sailing Ships moving gently. Pen

drawing:

Private Collection, Berne.

Geringer Ausserordentlicher,

An

Mrxl8i".
245

Bildnis. (F.9)

but out of the

ordinary Portrait. Pen and ink: I2f"x I8|".
70
Rosengart Gallery, Lucerne.
insignificant

Fellow,

Beflaggte Stadt. (2)

*Flagged Town. Water-colour on paper, black

background: llf'xSJ"
Private Collection, Berne.

103

Semitische Schonheit (Praecision). (T.I)

Semitic Beauty (Precision). Chinese
I7|"xl6".

76

Klee-Stiftung, Berne.

Architektur aus Variationen. (307)

Construction based on Variations. Chinese ink:
1

3"

20|".

Klee-Stiftung, Berne.

104

Porto Ferraio Insel Elba. (Q.9)

Porto Ferraio Elba. Chinese ink:

Phil Hart, U.S.A.

ink:

l|"x

18^".

78

293

1928
Alte Stadt Ueberblick. (Qu.8)

Town

Panorama.

Water-colour

on

paper: I|"x8f".
Richard Doetsch-Benziger Collection. Basle.

72

Old

Nichtkomponiertes im Raum. (C.4)

in Space. Pen-drawing
and water-colour: I2f"x9|".
Private Collection, Berne.
75

Uncomposed Objects

Italienische Stadt. (P.6)

Town. Water-colour, paper on card-

board: I3rx9i".
F.

74

Klee-Stiftung, Berne.

Italian

Die Sonne streift die Ebene. (M.4)

The Sun sweeps the Plain. Water-colour,
paper on cardboard: I4|"x9j".

K. Collection, Berne.

73
Ein Kreuzfahrer, (T.2)

Grosser Circus. (L.2)

Big Circus. Chinese ink.
Private Collection, Berne.

91

Obertone. (K.9)
Overtones. Chinese ink: I6rxl0i".
Private Collection, Berne.

//

F.

Crusader. Water-colour on paper

I7i"xll".
C. Schang Collection, New York.

Hauptweg und Nebenwege. (R.

Highway and Byways. Oil on
321" X 261".

Madame Werner

10)

canvas:

Vowinckel Collection, Munich.

77

Kleine Seenot. (L.3).

Slight

Danger

at Sea.

Chinese ink: i8"x

Klee-Stiftung, Berne.

I2|".

84

Alte Stadt und Brucke. (F.IO)

*Old Town and Bridge. Distennper on sacking:

4^x161".

Clown.

(D.3).

Oil

on canvas with Meuden

white: 26|"xl9r.
Curt Valentin Collection,

New

Water-colour

Soul.

drawing: 9^" X

122-23

paper on wood: I6|"x

Kunstmuseum, Basle.

on

chalk,

I2f".

lO

Vor dem Schnee.

wood and

8|"x W^'.

Siegfried Rosengart Collection, Lucerne.

122

1929

Angst hinter Fenster. (3 H.28)

*Fear behind the Curtain. Water-colour:
91" X 121".
Rosengart Gallery, Lucerne.

107

(3 h.l9)

Before the Snow. Water-colour,

cardboard: I3:^"x I5|".

Die Stelle der Zwillinge. (3 H.2I)

Place. Water-colour, paper on
cardboard: IOi"x 12".
Klee-Stiftung, Berne.

135

Rechnender Greis. (S.9)

Old Man calculating. Etching.

121

Belichtetes Blatt. (OE.4)

*lllunninated
Leaf.
Water-colour

F.

80

2.94

120

K. Collection, Berne.

Nekropolis. (S.I)
Necropolis. Gouache: I5"x9|''.
D. H. Kahnweiler, Paris.

Monument im
in

81

Fruchtland. (N.I)
fertile
Land. Water-colour,

paper on cardboard: I8^"x

12".

Klee-Stiftung, Berne.

137

Gemischtes Wetter. (3 h.43)

*Mixed Weather. Oil and water-colour on
muslin: \9^"x I6i".
F.

K. Collection, Berne.

126

Physiognom,ische Genesis. (C.5)

and

pen,

Genesis of the Physiognomy. Water-colour:

paper on cardboard: I2"x9".

Klee-Stiftung, Berne.

paper on

Kirche und Schloss. (M.7)

Church and Castle, ^'en-drawing.

Monument
*The Twins'

pen-

79

Private Collection, Berne.

Eingezuntes. (Qu.4)
Cloisonn. Oil on paper, stuck on

and

14^".

Private Collection, Berne.

Ein Blatt aus dem Stadtebuch. (N.6)

*A Leaf fronn the Town Records. Oil

78

York.

Irrende Seele. (3 h.ll)

Wandering

Richard Doetsch-Benziger Collection, Basle.

plaster:

76

I2rx9r.
134

F.

K. Collection, Berne.

123

Feigenbaum. (X.IO)
Water-colour on paper:
F. C. Schong Collection, New York.

*Figtree.

rx8J".

131

Langes Haar und Seelisches (Omega 9)

Long Hair Soulful. Chinese ink: M"x8J".
98
F. C. Schang Collection, New York.

Steli dich ein.

Schang Collection,

Um sieben ijber Dachern. (S.I)

Seven o'clock above the Roofs. Varnished
water-colour on canvas: 2l|"x I9|".
86

Louise Leiris Gallery, Paris.

(AE.5)

x\r

The Rendezvous. Water-colour:

F. C.

Physiognomien von Querschnitten. (W.3)

Physiognomies of Cross-sections. Watercolour, paper on cardboard: I8i"x24j".
85
Rosengart Gallery, Lucerne.

New

95

York.

Madchen mit Puppe. (H.8)

Girl with Doll. Chinese ink: I8j"x IfChris Schang, Westport, Conn., U.S.A.
I

Furcht vor Verdoppelung. (E.3)

Fear of becoming double. Chinese
I8"x If".
Rosengart Gallery, Lucerne.

ink:

Ein Tier geht spazieren.

(J. 5)

An

walk.

101

Animal

having

Chinese

108

ink:

i4rx8r.
Angela Rosengart Collection, Lucerne.

109

Fluten. (UE. 7)

Waves. Drawing: 4|"x

F.

If
94

K. Collection, Berne.

I3i"x8r.
Hermann Rupf

Ordensburg. (O.I)
Castle of the Order. Ink-drawing:

86

Wstengebirge. (K.I3)
Desert Mountains. Crayon; Iirxi

C.

or X

Water-colour

on

149

Springer. (C.3)

wood

Reed-drawing:
F.

/3

20i" x 20|".
140

K. Collection, Berne.

Fruchte. (X.2)
*Fruit. Water-colour on cloth:
Private Collection, Berne.

Chinese ink: IJ"x3i".

Schang Collection, New York.

or xi6r.
152-53

132

Kind und Hund. (A.5)

Child and Dog. Chinese ink: 8J"x8".
Mrs. Robert Gage, Milford, Conn., U.S.A.

Zur Gruppe geschlungen. (J. 7)

Group interlaced. Ink-drawing:

l"x

IS

127

Klee-Stiftung, Berne.

97

Familienspaziergang. (J. 10)

Family Walk. Pen-drawing

in

colour:

3|"xlOr.

1930

Gewagt Wagend.

(Y.4)

Calmly

Water-colour

daring.

too

Klee-Stiftung, Berne.

on

paper:

12^x91".
82

Klee-Stiftung, Berne.

Farbtafel (Auf mairoem Grau). (R.3)

*Table of colour (in grey major). Pastel with
glue, paper on cardboard: I5j"x
J".
130
Klee-Stiftung, Berne.
1

Zwillinge. (W.8)
Twins. Oil and
23-1"

chalk:

181".

*Acrobat. Varnished water-colour, canvas on

(i.l)

Verspatetes. (UE.8)
F.

176

Private Collection, Berne.

92

Klee-Stiftung, Berne.

Late.

Sangerhalle. (C.9)
*Hall of Singers.
I

Klee-Stiftung, Berne.

Stadt mit Wachttijrmen.

Collection, Berne.

Ig"x9|".

Klee-Stiftung, berne.

Town with Watchtowers.

IZrx 11^".

Blumenvase. (B.9)
*Model of a Flower Vase. Oil on paper, pochoir:
Plastik einer

water-colour

on

canvas:

X 9r.

hienry T. Kneeland Collection, Hartford, Conn.,

U.S.A.
83

Pop und Lok im Kampf. (77)

Pop and Lok fighting. Gouache,
cardboard: 7^" x 13^'.
Klee-Stiftung, Berne.

Freies, streng gefasst. (Y.3)

but securely held.

*Free,

paper on

F.

paper: 24" x 18".

C. Schang Collection,

New

Water-colour on
York.

172

Schwebendes (vor dem Anstieg). (S. 10)

*Hovering (about to take off). Oil on canvas:

33rx33r.
84

Klee-Stiftung, Berne.

145

295

Haus, aussen und innen. (Y.I)

Inside and Outside of a House. Water-colour:

iirx9r.
Rosengan

Stammtischler. (X.20)
Habitu. Chalk-drawing: QJ'xS^".

An

116

Klee-Stiftung, Berne.

87

Gallery, Lucerne.

Studie. (Qu.l9)

Rhythmisches. (E.3)
Rhythmical. Oil on sacking: 27i"x I9|*.

Study. Crayon:

8i"x

13".

102

Klee-Stiftung, Berne.

Private Collection, Berne.

88
1932

Zwischen Herbst und Winter, (Z.I 6)

Between Autumn and Winter. Brush-drawing

Winterbild. (D.6)
Picture. Gouache
Private Collection, Paris.

Winter

on cardboard.

128

Klee-Stiftung, Berne.

Sechs Arten. (X.4)

Six Types. Water-colour, linen on cardboard:

lifx
F.

181".

90

K. Collection, Berne.

Segelnde Stadt. (T.IO)

Floating

Town.

Water-colour

on

paper:

Extra-Ture.

19".

112

Zeichen verdichten sich. (Qu.l)

More and more Signs. Brush-drawing:

Measurement of
with gum: I8i"x I3f".

119

Klee-Stiftung, Berne.
Gift. (13-VIII)

on

Poison. Water-colour,
I

92

Hohenmessung der Lagen.

Individualized

l|"x

paper on cardboard:

19".

193

Klee-Stiftung, Berne.

Ad

Parnassum.

(X.I 4).

Oil

on

Beds.

93

from

oneself. Pen-drawing with wash

and ink: I6^"x22|".

Klee-Stiftung, Berne.

97

Kunstmuseum, Berne.
Tanzerin. (X.I

I)

Dancer. Oil: 22i"x loj".

F. C. Schang Collection, New York.

1931
Flucht vor sich. (K.5)

124

98

Pflanzenanalytisches. (V.9)
Plants analytic. Oil on sacking: 20|"x7i".
Richard Doetsch-Benziger Collection, Basle.

Baume im Oktober. (87)

Trees in October. Oil, paper on cardboard:
I4i"x I8rKlee-Stiftung, Berne.
94

Arabisches Lied. (Y.3)

Arab Song. Oil on canvas: 351" xlS^".
The Phillips Gallery, Washington.

Ein Stich. (M.2)

Pflanzen Schriftbild. (61)

Plant Script-Picture. Gouache,

Stitch.
1

21"

Pen-drawing, ink and water-colour:

cardboard:

19".

Rosengart Gallery, Lucerne.

95

K. Collection, Berne.

canvas

Klee-Stiftung, Berne.

117

Schach. (Y.3)
Check! Oil on plaster.

296

100

on

Of x 201"-

7r'x

101

22".

Klee-Stiftung, Berne.

David Thompson Collection. Pittsburg.

99

Kleine Felsenstadt. (X.I 6)

Small Town among the Rocks. Oil on canvas:

Uppiges Land. (X.9)

Rich Land. Crayon.
F.

canvas:

391" x 491".

the

Klee-Stiftung, Berne.

Flight

I3i"x

I2rx7".
91

Nekropolis. (0.7)
Necropolis. Colours mixed with glue
paper: 32t"x26|".
David Thompson Collection, Pittsburg.

Pastel

(S.I I)

Special Door. Reed-drawing:

Klee-Stiftung, Berne.

24^x18^.
Hernnann Rupf Collection, Berne.

Individualisierte
(R.2)

20rxl4r.

89

102

*Emacht. (M.8). Oil on canvas: I9|"x25i".

96

F.

K. Collection. Berne.

157

Lagunenstadt. (M.3)

Gelehrter. (Z.6)

*Lagoon City. Water-colour on paper;

I9"x iir.

Scholar. Gouache on plaster: I3j"x

Private Collection, Berne.

186

Park-bild. (X.I4)
Picture of a Park. Water-colour: I3"xi
F. K. Collection, Berne.

203

173

Polyphonie. (X.I 3)

Polyphony. Tempera on linen: 26J"x4lf".

Emanuel
Kunstmuseunn,
Hoffmann-Stiftung,
168

Basle.

Kleiner blauer Teufel.

Blue Devil. Oil-painting:

Little

Garten-Rhythmus.
Garden Rhythm.

7^x1
F.

10^*.

Private Collection, Berne.

Ii"x9f^

Private Collection, Berne.

(t.5)

on

Oil-tempera

linen:

li".

K. Collection, Berne.

165

103

Der KiJnftige. (Y.5)

The Man of the Future. Water-colour on
paper, applied with knife: 24f"x 18^".
104

Klee-Stiftung, Berne.

Gartentor M. (M.I 5)
M. Oil and gouache on muslin:
lir'x 13".

Garden Gate

Richard Doetsch-Benziger Collection, Basle.

161

Frauenmaske. (4E.2)
Female Mask. Oil on canvas: 22" x
F. C. Schang Collection, New York.

Tier. (M.I8)
Lady and Animal. Water-colour on paper:

Daring! Ink-drawing; I3|"xl2|".

Klee-Stiftung, Berne.

64

F.

Abwarts. (M.20)

Downwards! Ink-drawing: 9^"x

I3f"

125

X 24i".

Schang

Collection,

New

106

York.

Double

Face.

Water-colour drawing:

I2rx8r.
F.

139

K. Collection, Berne.

(I)

Captain.

Oil-tempera on

papier

mch: 22"x4f".
F.

8|"

C.

Doppelgesicht. (E.3)

Private Collection, U.S.A.

Barbarian

105

Dame und

Gewagtes. (N.6)

Barbaren-Feldherr.

18^".

K. Collection, Berne.

181

Welthafen.
World Harbour. Colour mixed with gum,
paper on cardboard: IZfx If".
I

Junger Baum (Chloranthemum). (P. 13)

Young Tree (Chloranthemum). Water-colour
on paper: I8i"x I4J".
Private Collection, Berne.

}90

F.

K. Collection, Berne.

143

1934

Zu

Berg. (M.5)

Towards the Mountain. Crayon: I2^"x8i".

Klee-Stiftung, Berne.

1933
Angriff der Nachstfolgenden. (V. 18)
Attack by those coming after. Brush-drawing:

I8r'x24r.

ich
I

werde

shall say

sagen. (T.7)
.

Crayon: 6|"x

I2|".

Klee-Stiftung, Berne.

Curt Valentin Collection,

New

Diana im Herbstwind. (R.2)

in the Autumn Wind. Water-colour,
paper on cardboard: 24f"x6f",

'Diana

Klee-Stiftung, Berne.

154

Urkunde. (Z.3)
Document. Oi and plaster on gauze 8|" x
I

Angela Rosengart Collection, Lucerne.

7^'

184

Geoffnet. (A.6)

Open. Water-colour
wood: 16" x 2 If".
K. Collection, Berne.

and

wax,

141

129

York.

Auswandern. (U.I)
Emigrating. Crayon: I3"x8i".

F.

Und
And

151

muslin

on
177

Klee-Stiftung, Berne.

194

Zerbrochene Maske. (S.I 6)

^Broken Mask. Water-colour: ()\"x7l".
F.

K. Collection, Berne.

195

Wildwasser. (16)
Waters. Water-colour and pen on
paper: Ilf"xl9i".

Untamed

Private Collection, Berne.

198

297

Wolke uber Bumen.

Tor zum verlassenen Garten.

(N.I5)

Cloud above the Trees. Crayon: 8|"x25".

Klee-Stiftung, Berne.

*Gate
144

Schwerbefruchtet. (Qu.lO)
Heavily pregnant. Crayon.

133

Ann und im See. (N.I6)

On and in the Lake. Crayon: 9^"x24i".
Klee-Stiftung. Berne.

Siesta.

the

(L.I 8)

Gouache:

Garden.

deserted

12rx

\7i".
Private Collection, Berne.

206

Der gefundene Ausweg. (N.I 8)

*The Way-out at last. Water-colour on paper:

I2rxl8r.
F.

202

K. Collection, Berne.

138

Gennischte Siesta. (N.20)

Confused

of

Zwei-Frucht-Landschaft
Fruit Landscape
9i"xl3".

*Two

Crayon: 6|"x25y.

Klee-Stiftung, Berne.

150

Bald nnarschieren nnehr. (R..I3)

More will be marching soon. Crayon: I2|"x7".
Klee-Stiftung, Berne.
146

F.

II.

(L.9)

Water-colour:

II.

209

K. Collection, Berne.

Moblierte Arktis. (M.I)

Furnished

Arctic.

Gouache:

\^"x

18^".

216

Rosengart Gallery, Lucerne.

Angst. (U.2)

and water-colour, covered with wax,

on canvas: I9f"x2lf".

Fear. Oil

Nelson A. Rockefeller Collection,

New

York.

107

Botanisches Theater. (U.I9)

Botanical Theatre. Oil and water-colour on
canvas: I9|"x26f".
Private Collection, Berne.
108

W-geweihtes Kind.

(K.I

Child consecrated to

I)

W (Woe). Gouache and

9".

oil: 51" X
Albright Art Gallery, Buffalo.

1 1

Dame Damon. (P. 15)

Dame Demon. Distemper and
59r X 39i".

oil

on canvas:
ill

Klee-Stiftung, Berne.

Bluhendes. (T.I9)
Blossom. Oil on canvas: 3l|"x3li''
Dr. . Friedrich Collection, Zurich.

Zeichen auf
109

Trauernd. (8)
Mourning. Water-colour, paper on cardboard

19^x121".
Klee-Stiftung, Berne.

10

1935
Spiel auf

Game on

dem Wasser.

*Caligula.

Klee-Stiftung, Berne.

113

(4).

Water-colour on paper:

I9i"x9r.
F.

147

221

K. Collection, Berne.

1937
Schwanenteich. (V.I)
Pond with Swans. Colour mixed with black
gum: I8|"x 16^".
Mrs. John Rockefeller Collection,

Gartenfigur 'zur Warnung". (12)

New

York.

170

\''x7".

Klee-Stiftung, Berne.

135

Ausdrucks-Leier. (14)
Expressive Lyre. Crayon: IOJ"x7".
Klee-Svftung, Berne.

Ach. aber ach. (U.I)

Oh! But Oh! Colour mixed with gum and

black water-colour: 7^" x l|".
I

K. Collection. Berne.

163

Private Collection, Berne.

148

Neu
Rindenkultur. (P.5)
Bark Culture. Sous-verre:

298

Feld. (M.I 7)

199

Grobgeschnittener Kopf. (K.12)

Roughhewn Head. Wash: I3"x8i''.
F. C. Schang Collection, New York.

F.

dem

the Field. Water-colour.

in

1936
Betroffene Stadt.
Stricken Town. Oil on plaster: I7|''x I3|".
114
Dr. W. Loeffler Collection. Zurich.

(3)

the Water. Crayon: 7"x I0|".

Warning. Crayon:

Signs

angelegter Garten. (K.7)

*Newly
I

I"x7^".

9i":-

155

laid-out Garden.

Gouache on

plaster:

I2r.

Private Collection. Berne.

212

Zeichen in Gelb. (U.IO)

Yellow Signs. Pastel on canvas: 32|"x

115

Private Collection, Berne.

Labiler

Wegweiser.

Szene mit Vogeln. (6)

Scene with Birds. Charcoal

I9j

(L.5)

Unstable Signpost. Water-colour on blottingpaper: I7f' xZI".

F.

Zeichnung zur "Pierette". (13)

Drawing for "Pierette". Crayon: 7|"x6^".

Kunsthaus, Zurich.

117

Pastel,

paper on card-

Klee-Stiftung, Berne.

Erfolg.

(W.

17)

Incantation. Brush-drawing,
gouache: \\^" x I6g".
Siegfried Rosengart Collection, Lucerne.

Successful

Ein Blick aus Aegypten. (S.I 5)

18

black
179

Kinderspielplatz. (T.8)

Children's Playground. Pastel and red chalk.

162

1938
Pathos. (D.I). Pink paper: I9i"x I3J".
F. K. Collection. Berne.

Zeichnung zum Wandercircus. (L.I)

Itinerant Circus. Crayon: I8^"x ISf"

189

^59

Private Collection, U.S.A.

Gedanken an Nachkonnnnenschaft.

Schwarze Zeichen. (H.I4)

Black Signs. Pastel: 51" x9Y'

(P. 14)

Thoughts on our Descendants. Charcoal and

water-colour, based on chalk and gum.
paper on cardboard: Ifx/^*.
I

F.

158

Klee-Stiftung, Berne.

Beschworung mit

Glance from Egypt.

board: I0|"x6|".

167

116

K. Collection, berne.

Ueberschach. (R.I)
Super-check! Oil on canvas: 47^^x43^'

7"xll".

Klee-Stiftung, Berne.

119

K. Collection. Berne.

F.

K. Collection, Berne.

Tiere

Gehege.

irn

Animals

in

192

(8)

Paddock.

the

Brush-drawing.

9"xlir.
Harmonisierter Kampf. (206)

Harmonised

Struggle.

Pastel

F. C.

on

Schang Collection,

22rv33r.
120

Klee-Stiftung, Berne.

Kunsthalle,

171

\"

x7".

227

Mi".
121

Der
The

kleine Preusse. (R.7)

Little Prussian.

Water-colour: lOf
160

Klee-Stiftung, Berne.

York.

Revolution des Viaduktes, (R.I 3)

Revolution of the Viaduct. Oil on
231" X I9|".

Klee-Stiftung, Berne.

Beginnende Kuhle. (Q.I6)

Early Chill. Oil on canvas: 28J"x20r.

New

York.

Eigenwille einer Brille. (F.9)

Spectacles in a Tantrum. Paint mixed with

gum:
Garten im Orient. (S.7)
Oriental Garden. Pastel on paper: I4J"
F. C. Schang Collection, New York.

Bernard H. Friedman Collection,

New

canvas:

122

canvas:

Hamburg.

123

Sextett der Genien. (T.9)

Sextet of Spirits. Pastel on paper: I3j"x 18^".
John S. Newberry Collection, Grosse Pointe,
Michigan, U.S.A.
124

Buhnenlandschaft. (U.I 2)
Stage Landscape. Pastel on canvas: 22|" x33|".
Hermann Rupf Collection, Berne.
125

Coelin-Frucht. (D.8)

Azure Fruit. Paint mixed with gum on paper:

I4i"xl0r.

Park bei L(-uzern). (J.9)

Park near L(ucerne). Oil on canvas: 39|"x28".
128

Klee-Stiftung, Berne.

Rote Weste. (K.3)

Red Waistcoat. Paint mixed with gum, with
wax on canvas: 25|"x 17".
F.

C.

Schang

Collection,

Timider Brutaler.
Bilderbogen. (Q.I3)
Picture Page. Oil on canvas: 23J"x20".
The Phillips Gallery, Washington.

127

Kl&e-Stiftung, Berne.

New

York.

129

(1.38)

Brutal but timid. Oil on jute: 29i"x34''.

Mr. and Mrs. H. Arnhold Collection, New York.

126

130

299

Nach rechts nach links. (E.I I)

To right and left. Paint mixed with gum on
F.

paper: ISI'x 13^".

C. Schang Collection,

Der Figur nahe. (R.I5)

Almost a Figure. Crayon: lOf^xB^".

131

York.

Skylla.

Zerbrochener SchliJssel. (J. 6)

Broken Key. Oil on canvas: 2lf'x26''.
1

Scylla.

(W.3)
Drawing

Shipwrecked. Crayon:

134

Klee-Stiftung, berne.

vom

gum on

paper:

33^x121".

175

1^"-

183

Klee-Stiftung, Berne.

Verfall einer Architektur. (C.3)

Architecture

135

K. Collection, berne.

in

Ruins, Chinese ink:

If'xB".
182

Akrobaten uben. (Z.8)

Acrobats exercising. Pencil:
F.

Werbeblatt der Komiker. (E.2)

Poster for Comedians. Paint mixed with gum
on paper: I8|"x 13^".
136

Louise Leiris Gallery, Paris.

If'xB^".
174

K. Collection, Berne.

Mit den beiden Verirrten. (D. 16)

With the two

lost Ones. Water-colour on

newspaper: I2|"xl9".
Richard Doetsch-Benziger Collection, Basle. 232

(J.2)

Paint

mixed with gum on canvas:

34|"x2li".

GriJn

New

York. 137

on

Der Graue und die Kuste. (J. 5)

The Grey Man and the Coast. Paint mixed with

on

linen:

220

Hans Meyer-Benteli, Berne.

Schlucht

138

Distemper

green.

i4"xi3r.
Dr.

jute:

in grijn. (S.5)

*Green

Gertrude Lenart Collection,

Reicher Hafen. (K.7)

Rich Harbour. Oil on canvas: 29i^"x65"
Kunstmuseun), Basle.

F.

in

Precfpice

den Alpen. (R.4)

the Alps. Water-colour:

in

lOf'xSr.
F.

251

K. Collection, Berne.

4r'x27|".
139

K. Collection, Berne.

Pomona.

(J. 14).

Oil

on canvas: 26f"x20J".
242

Klee-Stiftung, Berne.

Insula

Dulcamara.

{C,\

on

canvas:

22rx68r'.

1939
140

Klee-Stiftung, Berne.

Frijchte auf Blau. (J. 10)

Fruits on Blue. Paint

canvas:

Gedicht

Poem
mixed with gum on

2l|"x 53 i".

Klee-Stiftung, Berne.

141

Leichter Paukenwirbel. (U.I2)

Gentle Drum-roll. Crayon: I0f"x8|'
Klee-Stiftung, Berne.

F.

300

Bilderschrift. (P. 10)

Picture Script. Drawing:

K. Collection, Berne.

Der Park zu Abien

3|"x

18^".

247

(aus der Gemuseabteilung).

(D.20)
The Park
F.

at Abien (from the Vegetable

Department). Water-colour: I4|"x
J".
246
K. Collection, Berne.

Baum
*Tree

in
in

der Stadt. (X.I 8)

the Town. Water-colour on paper:

8rx!3r.

iir'^'Si".
K. Collection. Berne.

in

in

142

Monolog des Katzchens

Monologue of a Kitten. Pen-drawing:
F.

IfxB'.

Klee-Stiftung, Berne.

Sport. (D.9)

Miss Sport. Paint mixed with

gum on

Chinese ink: 8"x

Fall. (B.9).

A^rs.

133

Tnze vor Angst. (G. 10)

Dancing for Fear. Water-colour, paper on
cardboard: IBJ^x 2 J".

Die Vase.

lOf.

Klee-Stiftung, Berne.

Klee-Stiftung, berne.

The Vase.

Sf x

SchiffbriJchige. (Z.7)

mixed with gum on canvas:

29rx44i\

F.

Chinese ink:

132

Vorhaben.

Das Fraulein

in

Klee-Stiftung, Berne.

Private Collection, Berne.

(J. 6)
Intention. Paint

188

Klee-Stiftung, Berne.

New

166

F.

K. Collection. Berne.

224

Ein Kinderspiel. (A. 5)

f^AChild's Game. Oil-tempera on papier mch:

Intoxication. Oil and water-colour

I6rxl2r.
F.

25r X 3
228

K. Collection, Berne.

Engelsam. (BE. 13)

How like an Angel. Crayons:

Ii"x8".

F.

on canvas:

i".

Hans A^eyer

142

Collection, Berne.

(WW.

8)

Possessed. Distemper and water-colour, paper

200

Rosinantes Enkel. (RR.20)

Rosinante's Grandson. Pencil:

Daemonie.
I

Klee-Stiftung, Berne.

i,

Rausch. (Y.l)

on cardboard: 8|"x

I2|".

143

Klee-Stiftung, Berne.
I

If'x

I6|'

'208

K. Collection, Berne.

Vergesslicher Engel. (VV.20)

Forgetful Angel. Pencil:
l^xSi".

Ernste Miene. (UU.I7)

Stern Visage. Water-colour and distemper on
paper: I3"x8|:".
Klee-Stiftung, Berne.
144

201

Klee-Stiftung, Berne.

Unterwassergarten. (NN.6)
Underwater Garden. Oil on

Bruderschaft. (ZZ.I2)
Fraternity. Pencil: 8i"x
Klee-Stiftung, Berne.

215

Angstausbruch. (G.7)
Outburst of Fear. Pen-drawing: I0|"x8|

Engel. (UU.I9)
Guardian Angel. Drawing in pen and distemper:

'l78

I8rxl2r.

205

La Belle Jardiniere. (OP. 17) Oil and distemper

on canvas: 37|"x27|".

Gruppe zu sieben, (Hi. 3)

Group of Seven. Crayon:

214

Argwohn im Vorbeigehen. (AB. 8)

He goes past, suspiciously. Crayon:
1

Klee-Stiftung, Berne.

I|"x8".
255

Kerzen-Flammen. (6)
Candles and Flames. Black chalk and paint
mixed with gum on paper: I9f''x 13". 148
Will zu

und doch Gesetzlich.

Neu-Gesetzliches
(HH.9)
A new Order but Order. Crayon: 8"x 1^".
222
Klee-Stiftung, Berne.
.

pleased. Crayon:
Klee-Stiftung, Berne.

Of"

x 81".
196

Barockes Korbchen. (W.8)

Baroque Basket. Crayon: 8" x

1^".

197

Klee-Stiftung, Berne.

Harbour

Pen-drawing: 4|"x

If".

156

Klee-Stiftung, Berne.

Navigatio mala. (DD.3) Crayon: 8" x

Island.

14".

229

K. Collection, Berne.

Crayon:

Engel. (UU.I4)
Poor Angel. Water-colour and tempera on
paper: 7^"x I2J".
236
Private Collection, Berne.

Mit grijnen StriJmpfen. (CD. 9)

green Stockings. Water-colour
blotting-paper: I3|"x8i".

and

*With

213

K. Collection, Berne.

Nackt auf dem Bett. (A. 3)

Naked on the Bed. Water-colour: 8f'x
1

F.

1^".

K. Collection, Berne.

If".

240

Exotisches Madchen vom Tempel. (VV.5)

Exotic Temple Girl. Pen and distemper on
black paper: I2f x8".

Doppelinsel. (FF.I7)
Klee-Stiftung, Berne.

91"

Schiffs. (X.I 7)

to go aboard. Water-colour:

210

Klee-Stiftung, Berne.

Double

F.

F.

K. (G.I2)

at K.

Wants

Armer

Missmutig. (R.I 5)

Hafen von

147

Klee-Stiftung, Berne.

I^"x8''.

Klee-Stiftung, Berne.

Little

146

Private Collection, Berne.

Geige und Bogen. (W.I I)

Violin and Bow. Crayon.

Not

145

Private Collection, Berne.

Wachsamer

Klee-Stiftung, Berne.

canvas:

39rx3ir.

l|".

i"

X 8^
204

Klee-Stiftung. Berne.

218

301

Und noch

ein Kamuff.

(UU.3)

Alea

Another Camel! Pen-drawing: Ili'x8|^'.

f.

C.

New

Schang Collection,

219

York.

1940

mixed with gum:

Paint

I).

F.

C.

Schang

New

Collection,

152

York.

Gefangen. (Uncatalogued)

Durch Poseidon. (P. 9)

Through Poseidon. Ink-drawing: S^'x

Captive. Oil on canvas: I8j"x IZf.

Curt Valentin Collection,

New

1",

Frederick

Zimmermann

Collection,

New

York.

230

York.

Aegypterin. (X.I 5)

Egyptian Woman. Water-colour:

F.

(L.I

jacta.

I3rx8r.

153
Paukenspieler. (L.IO)

IfxSI;''.

K. Collection, Berne.

Drummer.

207

Paint

mixed with gum on paper:

I3rx8r.
154

Klee-Stiftung, Berne.

VorstandtAbend. (R.7)
Evening in the Suburbs. Oil-tempera on

jute:

5rxi3r.
F.

Frau inTracht. (M.I4)

in National Costume.

Woman

K. Collection, Berne.

225

I8rx

with gum:

mixed

Paint

J".

155

Klee-Stiftung. Berne.

Amateur-Pauker. (H.4)

Amateur Drummer. Wash: 8^"x

I3'

Private Collection.

191

Gruppe mit dem fliehenden Schimpfer. (Y.I 6)

Group with Man running away and hurling
Insults.

Ink-drawing: IIJ"x8".

Klee-Stiftung, Berne.

237

and

paint

Mexico,
157

mixed with gum:

231
(L.I 2).

158

Klee-Stiftung, Berne.

i^'xS^".

Water-colour:

Il"x8r.
F.

Maske.
Mask. Pastel

New

iirxi3r.

Klee-Stiftung, Berne.

Biedermeier-Fraulein.

Water-colour: I8i"x 12^-

U.S.A.

235

K. Collection, Berne.

Abtike Figurine. (W. 10)

Antique Figure. Crayon:

156

Matrose. (M.I3)
Sailor.

Water-colour:

despairingly.

srxiir.
F.

35rx27r.
Kunstnriuseum, Berne.

Victor Babin Collection, Santa Fe,

Verzweifelt Rudern. (F.7)

He rows

Flora am Felsen. (F.3)

Flora of the Rocks. Oil and distemper on jute:

K. Collection, Berne.

Tod und

Feuer. (G.I 2)
Fire. Oil on canvas: L
Klee-Stiftung, Berne.

Death and

xIZI".
159

234
Walkijre. (T.I4)

Heilige aus einem Fenster. (X.I

6)
Stained-glass Saint. Water-colour,

cardboard:

paper on

Valkyrie. Crayon: Il|"x8^".

Klee-Stiftung, Berne.

223

1^x81".

KleK^-Stiftung, Berne.

Asse! im Gehege. (F.I 3)

in Enclosure.

Woodlouse

149

Die Schlangengottin und ihr Feind. (H.I

7)

The Snake Goddess and her Enemy. Gouachedrawing: li"x 16^".

I

Pastel,

cotton on

226

Private Collection, Berne.

cardboard: \l^"x\6l".
Klee-Stiftung, Berne.

150

Blick.

Glance. Brush-drawing: 7f" x

Stilleben

am

on Leap Day. Colour mixed with

on canvas: 29J"x43^".

Still-life

Klee-Stiftung, Berne.

302

10".

Kiee-Stiftung. Berne.

Schalttag. (N.I 3)

241

gum
Ecce. (T.I8).
151

F.

Drawing: Wy'xSi".

K. Collection, Berne.

239

Index of Persons
Albert-Lazar, Lou, 93

Amiet, 38
Arp. Hans,

77.

Bach,

102,

J. S..

206,212

195,

150,

154,

188, 201,

207

Balladine, Lou, 93

Beardsley, Aubrey, 35

Beckmann, Max, 105

Beethoven, 154
Benn, 105
Blake, William, 35
Bloesch. 40, 62
Boccioni,

Giedion-Welcker, Carola,
225
Goethe, 30, 150, 156, 197
Gogol, Nicolas, 34
Goltz. 95
Goya. 42. 215
Greco, El. 185

Grohmann.

209.

215,

Will. 167, 183, 191, 192,238,241

Grunewald. 217
Gulbransson. Irygve. 215

Umberto, 78

Haller.

Herman.

23. 70

Handel. 154

Bonnard, 55, 83

Hartmann, E.. 156

Haydn. 154

Botticelli, 31

Braque, Georges. 70, 97, 206

Burckhardt, Carl. 23
BiJrgi, Frau Hanni. 62, 150, 157, 191. 192
150.

149,

87.

Gropius, Walter, 117, 152

Boecklin, Arnold, 25

BiJrgi, Rolf,

59,

191.205,225

Campendone, Heinrich, 63

Hebbel. C. P., 38
Heilbut. 38
Hindemith, Paul, 102
Hodler, Ferdinand, 42
Ibsen, H., 38

Carr. Carlo. 78

44
Cezanne. Paul. 42. 51.
Chaplin, Charles, 49
Chekhov, Anton, 56
Cocteau, Jean, 100
Corot. J-B. 42
Cranach, Lucas, 31

Jacob. Max. 217

Casals. Pablo.

57,

80

Jawlensky, Alexej von, 63. 89. 94

Joyce, James. 211

Kahnweiler. David Henri. 70

Kandinsky. Nina. 150. 152. 154. 156. 159
Kandinsky, Wassily, 15. 51, 62, 63, 64, 74, 89,
117,

De

Chirico, Giorgio, 74, 78, 97, 100

149,

152,

156,

157,

159,

162,

Delacroix. Eugene. 78. 97

Klee. Felix. 4, 46, 47. 55. 70, 80, 241

Delaunay. Robert. 63. 67. 69. 70. 73. 74. 87.

97, 112, 215. 217

Klee. Hans. 3, 4

Delaunay, Sonia, 69, 82

Derain, Andr, 70

Klee, Lily, 15,

Diaghilev, Serge, 100

Klee, Mathilde, 3

Disteli, Martin,

59

164. 206.

208. 217. 235

Klee, Ida Maria, 2

51.62,67,

16.

18.

70, 191,

19. 29, 30, 38, 40, 44, 47,

192,225,242

Knirr, Professor, 14

Kreydolf, 62

Donatello, 31

Durand-Ruel. Paul, 70
Dijrer, Albrecht, 217
Duse. Eleonora. 29

Kubin, Alfred, 78

Leonardo, da Vinci, 25, 42

Lessing, G., 108

Einstein. Albert.

236

Ensor, James. 51. 57. 58. 215

Macke, Augustus,
Manet, 42

Feininger, Lyonel,

Marc, Franz, 63. 64, 78, 89, 94, 105, 215

17

Flake, Otto, 75

Marcks, Gerhard,

Forain, J-L, 30

Matisse, 74, 165

62, 79, 89,

215

17

303

Merode, Clo

de, 30

Sinner, Frau von, 47

Meier-Graefe, 55
Michaux, Henri, 202

42
Sonderegger, Ernst,

Michelangelo, 25

Spiller, Jurg,

Moholy-Nagy.

Sisley. A.,

117

L.,

57,

70

105

Stendhal, 22, 29
Strasser, Professor, 42

Moilliet, Louis, 40, 62. 63, 79, 89

Mondrian, Piet. 235

Monet, 42
Morgenstern, Christian, 215, 217

Sudermann,

Mozart, 102. 150, 154, 157. 188, 201, 202, 208

Tacitus. 30

Muche. George. 17
Mijller, Joseph Ennile, 100

Thomann, 62

Stuck. Franz von,

14, 23,

34

H., 38

Tintoretto, 23, 78
Titian. 31

MiJnter. Gabrielle, 63

Mussorgsky,

156,

Toller. Ernst, 105

208

L.. 16. 30
Toulouse-Lautrec. 51

Tolstoy.

Otero, La

Belle,

30

Pechstein, Max, 105

Picasso, 6, 25, 48, 57, 70, 73, 74, 78,

165, 206,

Uhde. Wilhelm. 70
Unruh, F., 105

217
Vallotton,

Pinturicchio, 23, 31
Pissarro,
Plato,

L.,

Van Gogh,

42

Veronese,

30

F..

57

38, 51, 57, 58. 59

31

Puvis de Chavannes, 42

Velasquez, 42

Otto. 149
Raphael. 23. 25. 31
Rjane. 29

Vlaminck. 70
Volboudt, Pierre, 160
Vollard, A., 57
Voltaire, 44

Rembrandt, 185

Vuillard,

Ralfs,

E.,

55

Reni. Guido, 25

Walden, Herwarth, 78, 95

Walter, Bruno, 48
Warmoes, Jean, 93
Welti. 62
Werefkin, Marianne von, 63, 89
Wilde, Oscar, 42, 241

Renoir. 42
Rilke, R. M., 93

Rodin, 30

Rousseau. Henri, 70
Rupf, Hernnann. 225
Scheffer. Karl. 55

Wolff. Kurt. 78

Schlemmer. Oskar. 17
Schnnidt, Georg, 167, 225

Wright Brothers, 35

Schnberg, A.,

Zahn, Leopold, 149

Zola. E.. 30

102,

Beverini, Gino. 78

304

105

Art

PRAEGER PAPERBACKS

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STUDY OF HIS

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LIFE

GUALTIERI DI

*A succinct, sympathetic chronicle of the artist's life, with pertinent observations about the music and books and travel that
were influences, and about his friendships with Kandinsky,
Franz Marc, and others. Synchronized with this fabric of events
is an understanding recital of the stages of development in

accompanied by reproductions of paintings and drawings, which enable the reader to follow the text without difficulty.
San Lazzaro writes simply, feelingly and with authority. The
many reproductions have been chosen not only to clarify Klee's
development but also with a canny eye for bringing out all phases
of his prodigious, many sided work. The volume combines a
scholarly approach to modern art with popular appeal. Many of
the reproductions have not previously been reproduced and,
taken in connection with San Lazzaro's very pertinent text, they
add considerably to our knowledge and appreciation of one of
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