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PROPERTY FROM A DISTINGUISHED NEW YORK COLLECTION

Paul Klee
GIFTBEEREN (POISONOUS BERRIES)
Estimate
Double Dagger
Indicates that the lot is being sold whilst subject to Temporary Importation, and that VAT is due at the reduced rate
400,000 — 600,000
GBP
LOT SOLD. 825,250 GBP
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3

PROPERTY FROM A DISTINGUISHED NEW YORK COLLECTION

Paul Klee
GIFTBEEREN (POISONOUS BERRIES)
Estimate
Double Dagger
Indicates that the lot is being sold whilst subject to Temporary Importation, and that VAT is due at the reduced rate
400,000 — 600,000
GBP
LOT SOLD. 825,250 GBP
JUMP TO LOT

Details & Cataloguing

Impressionist and Modern Art Evening Sale

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Paul Klee
1879 - 1940
GIFTBEEREN (POISONOUS BERRIES)
signed Klee (upper right); titled and dated 1920.92 on the artist's mount
watercolour on chalk-grounded gauze on paper laid down on the artist's mount
image size: 15.4 by 22.2cm. 6 1/8 by 8 3/4 in.
mount size: 23.5 by 31.5cm. 9 1/4 by 12 3/8 in.
Executed in 1920.
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Provenance

Lily Klee, Bern
Galerie Beyeler, Basel (until 1964)
Horst Pavel, Bad Homburg (acquired from the above in 1964)
Private Collection, Germany (by descent from the above. Sold: Sotheby's, London, 28th June 1999, lot 25)
Private Collection, New York

Exhibited

Berlin, Nationalgalerie, Kronprinzenpalais, Paul Klee, 1923
London, The Tate Gallery in the National Gallery, Paul Klee, 1945, no. 42
Venice, Museo d'Arte Moderna Ca'Pesaro & Milan, Palazzo Reale, Paul Klee nelle collezioni private, 1986, no. 44, illustrated in colour in the catalogue
Düsseldorf, Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen & Stuttgart, Staatsgalerie, Paul Klee: Im Zeichen der Teilung, 1995, no. 86, illustrated in colour in the catalogue

Literature

Der Sturm, Berlin, 1923, vol. 14, no. III, illustrated in colour p. 41
Willi Wolfradt, 'Berliner Ausstellungen', in Der Cicerone, 1923, vol. 15, no. IV, p. 194
Georg Brühl, Herwarth Walden und 'Der Sturm', Cologne, 1983, no. 157, illustrated in colour p. 149
Paul Klee Foundation (ed.), Paul Klee, Catalogue Raisonné, Bonn, 1999, vol. 3, no. 2437, illustrated p. 207
Maler des 'Blauen Reiter'/Paul Klee/Deutsche Expressionisten (exhibition catalogue), Schlossmuseum, Murnau, 2006, illustrated in colour p. 96

Catalogue Note

Klee’s Giftbeeren is a joyful, vibrantly coloured work verging between abstraction and figuration. The composition is built of bold patches of colour combined with delicate lines evocative of nature, one of his favourite subjects. The artist’s son Felix Klee described his father’s favourite outing to Wörlitz near Dessau, which inspired his depictions of plants and gardens: it was ‘surrounded by an enchanting park full of lakes and watercourses that made the visitor forget the monotony of the surrounding Elbe flatlands. We strolled past Aeolian harps and exotic giant trees, across rickety footbridges, and took the ferries to the islands. Here Paul Klee was thoroughly in his element, and many of his pictures with plant or water subjects were the outcome of visits to this wonderful park’ (F. Klee, quoted in Roland Doschka, Paul Klee, Munich, 2001, p. 210).

 

Initially, this rich and vibrant work formed part of a larger composition, the lower section of which Klee cut off to create two independent works, giving the other image the title Waldvogel (fig. 1). The present composition thus forms part of a hidden dialogue between the poisonous berries and the forest bird of its ‘sister piece’. Klee’s interest in this process of Teilung (division) is evident as early as 1902 and was examined in the seminal 1995 exhibition Paul Klee: Im Zeichen der Teilung. In that exhibition, the present work was reunited with its sister piece for the first time since their division.

 

 

 

Fig. 1

Paul Klee, Waldvogel, 1920, watercolor on chalk-grounded gauze on paper laid down on the artist's mount, Private Collection, Switzerland

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