- 25
Paul Klee
Estimate
120,000 - 180,000 GBP
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Description
- Paul Klee
- KINDER UND HUND (CHILDREN AND DOG)
- signed Klee (lower right); titled and dated 1920.90 on the artist's mount
- watercolour and pen and ink on paper laid down on the artist's mount
- sheet size: 16.3 by 18.7cm. 6 3/8 by 7 3/8 in.
- mount size: 26.2 by 32.5cm. 10 1/4 by 12 3/4 in.
Provenance
Galka E. Scheyer, Braunschweig, New York & California (1928-31)
Diego Rivera, Mexico (acquired in 1931)
Private Collection (by descent from the above. Sold: Parke-Bernet Galleries, New York, 17th December 1969, lot 68)
Purchased at the above sale by the present owners
Diego Rivera, Mexico (acquired in 1931)
Private Collection (by descent from the above. Sold: Parke-Bernet Galleries, New York, 17th December 1969, lot 68)
Purchased at the above sale by the present owners
Exhibited
Zurich, Kunsthaus, Ausstellung, 1926, no. 51
Wiesbaden, Neues Museum, August-Ausstellung 1926, 1926, no. 104
Düsseldorf, Galerie Alfred Flechtheim, Landschaften aus Cagnes und Stilleben von Auguste Renoir, Paul Klee. Ölgemälde und Aquarelle, 1927, no. 32
Hollywood, Braxton Gallery, The Blue Four, 1930, no. 8
San Francisco, California Palace of the Legion of Honor, The Blue Four, 1931, no. 6
Oakland, The Oakland Art Gallery, The Blue Four, 1931, no. 28
Chicago, The Arts Club of Chicago, The Blue Four, 1932, no. 151
Wiesbaden, Neues Museum, August-Ausstellung 1926, 1926, no. 104
Düsseldorf, Galerie Alfred Flechtheim, Landschaften aus Cagnes und Stilleben von Auguste Renoir, Paul Klee. Ölgemälde und Aquarelle, 1927, no. 32
Hollywood, Braxton Gallery, The Blue Four, 1930, no. 8
San Francisco, California Palace of the Legion of Honor, The Blue Four, 1931, no. 6
Oakland, The Oakland Art Gallery, The Blue Four, 1931, no. 28
Chicago, The Arts Club of Chicago, The Blue Four, 1932, no. 151
Literature
Paul Klee Foundation (ed.), Paul Klee, Catalogue Raisonné, Bonn, 1999, vol. 3, no. 2435, illustrated p. 207
Catalogue Note
Klee executed Kinder und Hund in 1920, a time of relative prosperity for the artist, and one that marked a turning point in his career. In 1919 he secured a three-year contract with the dealer Hans Goltz, whose influential Munich gallery promoted Klee’s art, including a large retrospective exhibition of some 370 works held in 1920. It was later that year that Klee was invited by the architect Walter Gropius to teach at the Bauhaus, and subsequently moved to Weimar in 1921, when his work would become increasingly abstract and geometricised. Human figures and animals feature prominently in Klee’s works of this period. The humorous note and child-like style of the present work and many others from this time were probably a reaction to the harsh reality of the aftermath of the World War I.
The first owner of Kinder und Hund was Galka E. Scheyer, a collector and dealer whose primary interest was in ‘The Blue Four’: Jawlensky, Kandinsky, Klee and Feininger. In 1924 she moved from Germany to New York, and later settled in California. In America, particularly California, she befriended a number of collectors and museum curators, and energetically promoted the four artists, organising group and solo exhibitions and giving lectures on their work. Kinder und Hund was included in several exhibitions organised by Scheyer and held in various American museums and galleries in the early 1930s. It was mainly through her activities, as well as those of the dealer Curt Valentin, that works by Klee were introduced to American collections. In 1931 Kinder und Hund was acquired by the Mexican artist Diego Rivera (1886-1957), and remained in his family until it was sold at auction in New York in 1969, when it was purchased by the present owners.
The first owner of Kinder und Hund was Galka E. Scheyer, a collector and dealer whose primary interest was in ‘The Blue Four’: Jawlensky, Kandinsky, Klee and Feininger. In 1924 she moved from Germany to New York, and later settled in California. In America, particularly California, she befriended a number of collectors and museum curators, and energetically promoted the four artists, organising group and solo exhibitions and giving lectures on their work. Kinder und Hund was included in several exhibitions organised by Scheyer and held in various American museums and galleries in the early 1930s. It was mainly through her activities, as well as those of the dealer Curt Valentin, that works by Klee were introduced to American collections. In 1931 Kinder und Hund was acquired by the Mexican artist Diego Rivera (1886-1957), and remained in his family until it was sold at auction in New York in 1969, when it was purchased by the present owners.