拍品专文
Klee had a lasting influence on a number of Expressionist artists. His association with Marc and Macke are celebrated but his relationship with Alexej Jawlensky is infrequently referred to. Not only were Jawlensky and Klee great friends but Klee was an early admirer of Jawlensky's Variation paintings which he already recognised as being innovative and important in 1915. Throughout their lives they made picture exchanges.
Jawlensky remembered his first meeting with Klee in 1912 with great affection: "The Union put on another small exhibition at Goltz. That was the first occasion in which watercolours and drawings by Klee were shown. Kandinsky brought him along. He lived quite close to Kandinsky and had heard of him and called in to see him. It was our first meeting and the beginning of our friendship. I believe him to be one of Europe's greatest artists" (Memoire dictated to Lisa Kümmel, 1937).
Der Wald der aus dem Samenkorn entstand was acquired by Jawlensky shortly after this first meeting. It is likely that he was either given it or bought it after the exhibition at Galerie Der Sturm in 1917 or from Goltz in 1919. Both were galleries where Jawlensky had regularly exhibited and doubtless he could choose to buy what he wished, particularly since relations with Klee were so warm. Of Jawlensky's first six one-man exhibitions, three were held at Goltz and two at Galerie Der Sturm.
The subject of Der Wald der aus dem Samenkorn entstand seems to relate extremely closely in compositional terms to the celebrated watercolour Klee executed in Franz Marc's garden in 1915. Entitled
Föhn im Marcschen Garten, the watercolour is a slightly looser version of the present piece but seems to incorporate many of the same compositional elements. What Klee has added is a far stronger sense of geometry, architecture and dynamism.
Der Wald der aus dem Samenkorn entstand was first exhibited in Herwarth Walden's Galerie Der Sturm in December 1917 (see illustration). The exhibition followed the very successful Der Sturm show he had shared with Georg Muche in February of the same year where a large number of his pieces sold. After its purchase by Alexej Jawlensky the work passed by descent through the family of Lisa Kümmel, the Wiesbaden painter who looked after his studio and worked as his biographer from 1927 until his death in 1941.
Jawlensky remembered his first meeting with Klee in 1912 with great affection: "The Union put on another small exhibition at Goltz. That was the first occasion in which watercolours and drawings by Klee were shown. Kandinsky brought him along. He lived quite close to Kandinsky and had heard of him and called in to see him. It was our first meeting and the beginning of our friendship. I believe him to be one of Europe's greatest artists" (Memoire dictated to Lisa Kümmel, 1937).
Der Wald der aus dem Samenkorn entstand was acquired by Jawlensky shortly after this first meeting. It is likely that he was either given it or bought it after the exhibition at Galerie Der Sturm in 1917 or from Goltz in 1919. Both were galleries where Jawlensky had regularly exhibited and doubtless he could choose to buy what he wished, particularly since relations with Klee were so warm. Of Jawlensky's first six one-man exhibitions, three were held at Goltz and two at Galerie Der Sturm.
The subject of Der Wald der aus dem Samenkorn entstand seems to relate extremely closely in compositional terms to the celebrated watercolour Klee executed in Franz Marc's garden in 1915. Entitled
Föhn im Marcschen Garten, the watercolour is a slightly looser version of the present piece but seems to incorporate many of the same compositional elements. What Klee has added is a far stronger sense of geometry, architecture and dynamism.
Der Wald der aus dem Samenkorn entstand was first exhibited in Herwarth Walden's Galerie Der Sturm in December 1917 (see illustration). The exhibition followed the very successful Der Sturm show he had shared with Georg Muche in February of the same year where a large number of his pieces sold. After its purchase by Alexej Jawlensky the work passed by descent through the family of Lisa Kümmel, the Wiesbaden painter who looked after his studio and worked as his biographer from 1927 until his death in 1941.