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Property from a German Private Collection segelschiffe, den sturm abwartend (sailing ships waiting for the storm) signed; dated 1917 89 on the artist's mount watercolour, gouache and pencil on paper laid down on the artist's mount image size: 14 by 21 cm., 5 1/2 by 8 1/4 in. mount size: 24 by 30.7 cm., 9 1/2 by 12 in. Executed in 1917. Provenance Johannes Geller, Neuss (acquired from the artist) Thence by descent to the present owner Literature Verzeichnis der Sammlung des Rechtsanwalts Johannes Geller in Neuss, Munich, 1943, p. 6, no. 26, catalogued; no. 26, illustrated (with the title Segelschiffe im Hafen) The Paul Klee Foundation (ed.), Paul Klee Catalogue raisonne, 1913-1918, London, 2000, vol. II, p. 392, no. 1773, illustrated in colour (with the incorrect provenance) Executed in 1917, this vibrant scene of sailing ships on the sea with the moon, the sun and a great white star shining above them represents the epitome of Klee's child-like delight in colour and form. The triangles, squares and rectangles that define the ships themselves reflect the artist's enduring use of such patterns and motifs as the fundamental 'building blocks' of his vision. Klee's watercolours during this period are inspired by a new cosmic vision, probably in response to the grim realities of the First World War. Jurgen Glaesemer writes: 'A veritable creative frenzy had seized him. Using a simple vocabulary of geometric forms and sensitive, vibrant colours, he invented his own cosmic landscapes, with animate creatures, animals, plants, and heavenly bodies of all kinds. His simple forms and evocative colours give rise to a multitude of evocations; independent life is brought into being, as with seeming inadvertence everything joins to everything else in constantly changing expressive arrangements' (J. Glaesemer, The Colored Works in the Kunstmuseum Bern, Bern, 1979, p. 42).