Klee was demobilised from the German army in February 1919 and in the Spring of that year he rented a large studio in the 18th Century Palais Suresnes in the Werneckstrasse in Schwabin, Munich's artists' quarter. The works produced during this period, just before he joined the Bauhaus, show him focusing more on his materials: painting on linen, muslin and shirting, combining watercolour and tempera and, for the first time, painting seriously in oils. This work, like many vibrant gouaches of 1918 and 1919, was painted on aeroplane fabric, a fine silk-like material used to stretch over aircraft wings, which Klee had probably recovered from an aeroplane hangar when he was still in service. Viewed superficially, the landscapes of 1919 with their crystalline forms speak of the influence of both Cubism and Delaunay. In Mondschien a series of richly coloured triangles and squares converge on a plane surface, their forms created from a translucent network of parallel lines which intersect at acute angles creating a dynamic movement towards the centre. Trees are indicated in the barest outline, with a shimmering moon hanging overhead.

Nothing could rob Klee of the rich experience of his travels in Tunisia before the War, where he had first been captivated by the effect of moonlight. He wrote, "The evening is indescribable. And on top of everything else a full moon came up. Louis urged me to paint it. I said: it will be an exercise at best. Naturally I am not up to this kind of nature... I know the disparity between my inadequate resources and nature. This is an internal affair to keep me busy for the next few years" (D. Burnett, A Tribute To Paul Klee, Exh. cat., National Gallery of Canada, Ottowa, pp. 18-19). Thereafter he often painted gardens and landscapes in mysterious moonlight. "The evening is deep inside me forever. Many a blond northern moonrise, like a muted reflection, will softly remind me, and remind me again and again ... An incentive to find myself. I myself am the moonrise of the South" (ibid.).

Sold with a photo-certificate from Josef Helfenstein and Stefan Frey of the Paul Klee Stiftung dated Berne, 26 October 1995.