PAUL KLEE (1879-1940)

Details

PAUL KLEE (1879-1940)
Portal einer Moschee
signed top left 'Klee'--dated, numbered and titled on the mount '1931 S.1.Portal einer Moschee ScL'--watercolor on paper laid down by the artist on paper
Image size: 14¾ x 11½ in. (37.5 x 29 cm.)
Mount size: 17 x 13 in. (43 x 33 cm.)
Painted in 1931

Provenance

Lily Klee, Bern
Klee-Gesellschaft, Bern (acquired in 1946)
Buchholz Gallery (Curt Valentin), New York
Curt Valentin Gallery, New York
Acquired from the above by Mr. and Mrs. Ralph F. Colin on June 16, 1952

Literature

W. Grohmann, Paul Klee, London, 1954, pp. 213 and 418, no. 311 (illustrated, p. 395, no. 87)
N. Ponente, Klee, Biographisch-kritische Studie, Geneva, 1960, p. 92 (illustrated in color, p. 91)
XXe siécle, Vol. 23, No. 17, 1961, p. 54
ed. J. Spiller, Paul Klee, Notebooks, Vol. 2, The natur of nature, London, 1973 (illustrated, p. 232)
J. Glaesemer, Paul Klee, The Colored Works in the Kunstmuseum Bern, Bern, 1979, p. 301 (illustrated, fig. d)

Exhibited

New York, M. Knoedler & Co., Inc., The Colin Collection, April-May, 1960, no. 35 (illustrated)
New York, The Museum of Modern Art, 1975 (on loan)

Lot Essay

Between December 24, 1929 and January 10, 1930, Paul Klee traveled through Egypt, spending seven days in Cairo and the rest of the time in Luxor and Aswan. This relatively short visit had a profound and lasting influence on his art. While there he made a few sketches but his real work began after he returned to Dessau.

The present watercolor, Portal einer mosque, is an abstracted view of one of these beautifully complex doors of a mosque made of wood or metal and generally painted with strong colors. As noted by Wilhelm Grohmann this watercolor belongs to a group of works whose colored squares and rectangles resemble abstract stained-glass windows.

A photo-certificate from the Paul Klee-Stiftung dated Bern, March, 1995 accompanies this watercolor.