Paul Klee

Edgar Windt, Dessau
James Gilvarry, New York (sale: Christie’s, New York, 14th November 1984, lot 404)
Waddington Galleries Ltd (purchased at the above sale)
Satani Gallery, Tokyo (acquired from the above by 1989)
Acquired by the present owner circa 1990

Baltimore, Baltimore Museum of Art & Richmond, The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Paul Klee, Private Collection James Gilvarry, 1960
Champaign, University of Illinois, Krannert Art Museum, Paintings, Drawings and Prints by Paul Klee from the James Gilvarry Collection, 1964, no. 5
Indianapolis, Herron Museum of Art, Paul Klee, 1966, no. 3
Santa Barbara, University of California, The Art Gallery, Paul Klee: Oils, Watercolours, Gouaches, Drawings, Prints from the James Gilvarry Collection, 1967, no. 5, illustrated in the catalogue
Tokyo, Satani Gallery, Paul Klee (1879-1940), 1990, no. 5, illustrated in colour in the catalogue
Kamakura, The Museum of Modern Art (& travelling Japan), Paul Klee and his Travels, 2002

Franz Roh, 'Entartete' Kunst. Kunstbarbarei im Dritten Reich, Hannover, 1962, p. 167
'Investing in Art - the latest boom' in U.S. News & World Report, 27th January 1964, illustrated p. 69
Paul Klee Foundation (ed.), Paul Klee, Catalogue raisonné, 1913-1918, Bern, 2003, vol. II, no. 1331, illustrated p. 216

Executed on cream laid paper, not laid down, attached to the mount at the upper two corners and the centre of the left and right edges and floating in the mount. The sheet is slightly undulating, due in part to the application of the medium, and there is a very tiny loss to the upper right corner. This work appears to be 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. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

Paul Klee’s beginnings were humble; born to musician parents his path seemed bent towards a career as a violinist. On almost failing his final school exams, he commented with what would become known as his characteristic wit: ‘After all, it’s rather difficult to achieve the exact minimum, and it involves risks’ (quoted in Paul Klee at the Guggenheim Museum (exhibition catalogue), Guggenheim Museum, New York, 1993, p. 22).

His parents reluctantly allowed him to turn his back on musical studies in 1898 to pursue a somewhat unexpected degree in Fine Art. Klee excelled as a draftsman and demonstrated a natural understanding of form and line; colour on the other hand was a struggle for him and some of his early writings suggest he had determined that he would never succeed as a painter (Paul Klee at the Guggenheim Museum (exhibition catalogue), op. cit., p. 22). All of this changed in 1914, when Klee took a trip to Tunisia with fellow artists August Macke and Lois Moilliet; the artist was instantly enchanted by the light and the foreign hues of the North African countryside.

On returning to Germany, Klee painted In the Style of Kairouan (fig. 1), the work that is considered to be the artist’s first purely abstract composition, where balanced geometric forms are articulated in a delicate variety of gentle colours. The present work, dated to the same period and belonging to the same small series of compositions, similarly comprises circles and paths of light, executed in an even more gentle and elegant palette. This beautiful series of works are an extraordinary fusion of the artist’s affinity with Cubism, his creative commitment to the studies of Kandinsky and Delaunay, and his visceral response to the planes of colour that so affected him in Tunisia. 

Paul Klee’s legacy is seen at large in some of the world’s greatest art institutions, including the Metropolitan and Guggenheim Museums in New York, The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Berggruen Museum, Berlin, as well as the dedicated Paul Klee Museum in Bern, Switzerland. The present work counts among his most important compositions, dating to the period at which he realised the potential of colour and thereby found the inspiration to embrace abstraction. As he himself observed of this turning point: ‘Colour possessed me. I don’t have to pursue it. It will always possess me. I know it. That is the meaning of this happy hour: colour and I are one. I am a painter’ (quoted in F. Klee (ed.), The Diaries of Paul Klee 1898-1918, Berkeley, 1964, p. 297).

James Gilvarry was an important C20th century book collector, who throughout his lifetime compiled one of the most distinguished and comprehensive library of works by writers, among whom counted James Joyce, William Butler Yeats, Samuel Beckett and Henry James. His extraordinary collection of literary paraphernalia comprised no less than 565 books, manuscripts, typescripts and photographs. Gilvarry’s particular interest lay in Modern movements in literature, which complemented his second great passion in life: Modern Art. Gilvarry’s nephew observed of his uncle that his two life-long loves were Joyce and Paul Klee. The present work was among 27 paintings by Klee from Gilvarry’s collection that were sold at Christie’s in 1984.