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Lot Essay
Executed in 1920, Knabenbildnis is a rich example of the technical complexity of Paul Klee’s method of oil transfer drawing, an innovative technique he pioneered in 1919 and called “Ölfarbzeichnungen.” In this process, Klee would cover one side of a sheet of Japan paper with a thin film of black oil paint which, when it had dried sufficiently, could be used like a piece of carbon paper to transfer the artist’s preliminary drawing on to another sheet. Carefully tracing the contours of the drawing with a thin stylus or a metal needle, Klee used this method to create a new version of the image, altering the quality and appearance of the line as he applied varying degrees of pressure during the translation process. This resulted in softer, more granular contours that vary in density as they traverse the page, while small smudges of oil paint, accidentally pressed through by the artist’s drawing hand as he completed the tracing, lend the composition an additional sense of texture.
For Klee, oil transfer drawings offered him an opportunity to introduce color into his oeuvre without having to paint up to the line, or to fill-in his forms with blocks of pigment. The oil paint would repel the sumptuous watercolor washes that he used to fill his backgrounds, their subtly shifting, variegated tonalities bringing dynamic atmospheric effects to his compositions. In Knabenbildnis, Klee deftly applies soft passages of pastel-hued pigments to the sheet, using touches of yellow, peach, sage green and rosy pink to highlight various elements within the portrait, such as the young boy’s hair, his lips and his eyes. There is a distinct, childlike innocence to the picture’s protagonist, his wide-eyed gaze filled with delicately delineated stars, as the second “figure” in the scene appears upside-down beside him, the line of their shoulders perfectly aligned. The diminutive scale and articulation of this second form suggests it is a soft doll of some sort, perhaps tossed into the air by the young boy, who then hides one hand behind his back. In the process of using the oil transfer technique, Klee often chose to alter certain sections of his original drawing, excluding or adding certain details as he worked on the image a second time. Here, the heeled-boots of the upside-down figure are eliminated, its legs ending instead in straight, linear dashes, while small segments of diagonal cross-hatching have been added to the young boy’s legs.
Within weeks of its completion, Knabenbildnis was sent directly from the artist’s studio to an important survey of Klee’s work at Hans Goltz’s Galerie Neue Kunst in Munich, which ran from May to June 1920. Featuring over 350 works—including oil paintings and sculptures, drawings, watercolors and prints—the exhibition amounted to a mini-retrospective, offering a comprehensive overview of the artist’s career thus far. The show was organized as part of the arrangement Klee had reached with the dealer Hans Goltz in October of the previous year, which not only granted the artist a new level of financial security, but also relieved him of the laborious business and administrative aspects of art making. Explaining the benefits of the contract in a letter to his friend Alfred Kubin dated February 1920, Klee proclaimed: “No exhibition worries anymore. Hardly any business correspondence anymore!” (quoted in M. Gale, ed., The EY Exhibition – Paul Klee: Making Visible, exh. cat., Tate Modern, London, 2013, p. 47). This exhibition proved to be a watershed moment for Klee’s reputation, marking him out as a bold new artistic voice in post-war Germany.
For Klee, oil transfer drawings offered him an opportunity to introduce color into his oeuvre without having to paint up to the line, or to fill-in his forms with blocks of pigment. The oil paint would repel the sumptuous watercolor washes that he used to fill his backgrounds, their subtly shifting, variegated tonalities bringing dynamic atmospheric effects to his compositions. In Knabenbildnis, Klee deftly applies soft passages of pastel-hued pigments to the sheet, using touches of yellow, peach, sage green and rosy pink to highlight various elements within the portrait, such as the young boy’s hair, his lips and his eyes. There is a distinct, childlike innocence to the picture’s protagonist, his wide-eyed gaze filled with delicately delineated stars, as the second “figure” in the scene appears upside-down beside him, the line of their shoulders perfectly aligned. The diminutive scale and articulation of this second form suggests it is a soft doll of some sort, perhaps tossed into the air by the young boy, who then hides one hand behind his back. In the process of using the oil transfer technique, Klee often chose to alter certain sections of his original drawing, excluding or adding certain details as he worked on the image a second time. Here, the heeled-boots of the upside-down figure are eliminated, its legs ending instead in straight, linear dashes, while small segments of diagonal cross-hatching have been added to the young boy’s legs.
Within weeks of its completion, Knabenbildnis was sent directly from the artist’s studio to an important survey of Klee’s work at Hans Goltz’s Galerie Neue Kunst in Munich, which ran from May to June 1920. Featuring over 350 works—including oil paintings and sculptures, drawings, watercolors and prints—the exhibition amounted to a mini-retrospective, offering a comprehensive overview of the artist’s career thus far. The show was organized as part of the arrangement Klee had reached with the dealer Hans Goltz in October of the previous year, which not only granted the artist a new level of financial security, but also relieved him of the laborious business and administrative aspects of art making. Explaining the benefits of the contract in a letter to his friend Alfred Kubin dated February 1920, Klee proclaimed: “No exhibition worries anymore. Hardly any business correspondence anymore!” (quoted in M. Gale, ed., The EY Exhibition – Paul Klee: Making Visible, exh. cat., Tate Modern, London, 2013, p. 47). This exhibition proved to be a watershed moment for Klee’s reputation, marking him out as a bold new artistic voice in post-war Germany.