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Dimensions: sheet size: 25.7 by 32.4cm., 10 1/8 by 12 3/4 in.
mount size: 28.3 by 34.9cm., 11 1/8 by 13 3/4 in.
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Provenance: PROPERTY OF AN AMERICAN COLLECTOR
Bernhard Mayer, Zurich (until 1941)
Galerie Rosengart, Lucerne (acquired in 1941)
Lily Klee, Bern (1941-46)
Klee-Gesellschaft, Bern (acquired in 1946)
Buchholz Gallery (Curt Valentin), New York (acquired in 1949)
G. David Thompson, Pittsburgh (until 1960)
James W. Alsdorf, Chicago (acquired in 1967)
Thomas Ammann Fine Art, Zurich
Robert Nowinski, Seattle
Ronnie Meyerson, Inc., New York
Sale: Sotheby's, New York, 13th November 1997, lot 150
Purchased at the above sale by the present owner
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Exhibited: Lucerne, Galerie Rosengart; Antwerp, Galerij Artes; Liège, Association Pour le Progrès Intellectuel et Artistique de la Wallonie, Paul Klee, 1948, no. 6
New York, Buchholz Gallery, Paul Klee, 1950, no. 3, illustrated in the catalogue
Palm Beach, Society of the Four Arts, Paintings by Paul Klee, 1879-1940, 1951, no. 21
Arts Club of Chicago, Paul Klee, Works from Chicago Collections, 1962, no. 10, illustrated in the catalogue
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Literature: Paul Klee Stiftung (ed.), Paul Klee Catalogue Raisonné 1919-1922, Bern, 1999, vol. III, no. 2904, illustrated p. 412
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Notes: In October 1920 Klee was invited by the architect Walter Gropius to teach at the Bauhaus in Weimar. The Bauhaus years in Weimar in the 1920s would coincide with one of Klee's greatest and most innovative periods. While the Bauhaus attracted artists, designers and architects, its activities also welcomed major composers such as Paul Hindemith and Igor Stravinsky whose music was played at various Bauhaus events. In this highly charged, intensely creative atmosphere, Klee, himself a proficient violinist, was allowed the opportunity to indulge his interest in music, theatre and the art of exotic places. He became increasingly fascinated by fairy tales, legends, puppets and non-Western cultures, including the art, literature and mysticism of the Far East, as Chinesische Novelle demonstrates.
During 1922, in tandem with his work as a teacher, Klee was attempting to redefine the nature of creativity. In this quest the example of Chinese philosophy and art provided an essential source for his art. Will Grohman, discussing a work of 1923, Chinesisches Porzellan (Klee Oeuvrekatalog, no. 234), considered that Klee may have been drawn to Chinese subjects because 'the Chinese have a different syntax' (W. Grohman, Paul Klee, Watercolours, Drawings, Writings, New York, 1969, p. 20). Klee was in the process of radicalising art through his own, highly personal new syntax of expression. This included his use of transparent and layered colours. He explored the way in which movement can be expressed through colour, in particular through the energy created when colours are intensified or diminished; made warmer or cooler; lighter or darker. This virtuoso manipulation of tone is especially apparent in the present work. Klee described this aspect of his work in a letter to his wife dated 14th April 1921: 'I am now trying to build up the tonality of my latest watercolors rigorously with two colors, no longer from pure feeling. And the drawing goes rigorously with the painted form, melodically so to speak.'
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