Paul Klee

Galerie Neue Kunst (Hans Goltz), Munich (acquired from the artist)
Ida Bienert, Dresden & Munich (acquired from the above in May-June 1920)
Galerie Nathan, Zürich (1969)
Eugene Victor Thaw & Co., New York
Berggruen & Cie, Paris (1981)
Fuji Television Gallery Co. Lt, Tokyo (1981)
Acquavella Galleries, New York 
Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon (acquired from the above in March 1982)

Berlin, Galerie Fritz Gurlitt, Paul Klee, Wolf Röhricht. Gemälde, Zeichnungen, Graphik, 1920, cat. no. 53
München, Städtische Galerie in Lenbachhaus, Paul Klee. Das Frühwerk, 1883-1922, 1979-1980, cat. no. 334
Tokyo, Fuji Television Gallery; Osaka, Gallery Kasahara, Exhibition of Paul Klee, 1981, cat. no. 4, illustrated in color

Wilhelm Michel, Das Graphische Jahrbuch, Paul Klee, Darmstadt, 1920, p. 792, illustrated
Will Grohmann, Privatsammlungen neuer Kunst. Die Sammlung Ida Bienert Dresden, Potsdam, 1933, p. 21, illustrated
Jenny Anger, Modernism and the Gendering of Paul Klee, dissertation, Brown University, 1997, p. 167
The Paul Klee Foundation & Museum of Fine Arts, Bern, eds., Paul Klee Catalogue raisonné 1913-1918, vol II, Bern, 2000, cat. no. 1849, p. 435, illustrated
Kathryn Porter Aichele, Paul Klee, Painter/Poet, Rochester, 2006, p. 102

The work is mounted on an artist board. Slight discoloration and stains can be seen from light exposure especially to the mount which is not disturbing to the composition. Small spots of paint loss has been recently addressed. Overall the work is in very good condition.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Klee’s work at the end of the first world war was dominated by the theme of gardens and nature. The artist’s son Felix Klee described his father’s favorite outing to Wörlitz near Passau, which inspired his depictions of plants and flowers: 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” (Felix Klee, quoted in Roland Doschka, Paul Klee, Munich, 2001, p. 210).

In 1919 Klee secured a three-year contract with the dealer Hans Goltz, whose influential Munich gallery promoted his art and staged a large retrospective exhibition in 1920 of some 370 works, including the present picture. 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.   After Goltz, the picture then came into the collection of Ida Beinert (1870-1965), one of the most important patrons of German and European avant-garde art in the 20th century.  Among the works in her collection were those of Klee, Gropius, Dix, Kokoschka and Nolde, who were all frequent attendants at the cultural salons she hosted in her home in Dresden during the 1920s.   Beinert's collection remained intact during the Second World War and were relocated to her new home in Munich in 1945.  Economic hardship during the post-war years compelled her to sell works from her collection, many of which now hang in museums throughout the world.