Lot Essay
Klee's visit to Tunis in 1914 was of lasting importance for his work and provided the starting point for many of his pictures, even well into the 1920s. As Sabine Rewald notes, "The high point of Klee's 1914 Tunisian journey was a stay of three days at Kairouan, one of Tunisia's oldest Arab cities whose ancient quarter is encircled by a 33-foot high wall. Surrounded by salt marshes, it lies about 80 miles south of Tunis. Founded in 670, Kairouan once served as the capital and religious center of North Africa. Its Great Mosque of Sidi Okba was first built about that same year. Many other mosques were built during the Turkish occupation, which lasted from 1574 to 1650. Regarded as one of the four gates of Paradise, Kairouan denied entry to Christians and Jews."
Grohmann saw this work as enshrining the memories of Kairouan with the developments of calligraphic lines of 1924-25; 'The lacy line patterns remain bound up with the themes of garden and architecture...This calligraphic technique easily transmutes an architectural structure into a phantasm. Flag-decked City (1927) gives the impression of an enchanted castle out of the Arabian Nights; the silvery moon of Kairouan shines out from a deep blue sky, and the red and yellow flags are just as much astral bodies as festive decorations" (Paul Klee, London, 1954, p. 257).
The architecture of Beflaggte Stadt may also owe something to Klee's 1926 visit to Italy where he stayed at Florence, Pisa and Ravenna before arriving in Elba. As he remarked in his journal, "Once again I went in search of something to stimulate harmonies lying dormant within myself, small or big adventures in color." The architecture of the Tuscan and Lombard hill towns and their inhabitants love of colourful flags would appear to be a further inspiration for Beflaggte Stadt.
The inscription S.Cl. on the mount indicates Sonder Classe (the artist's way of spelling the words), a classification by the artist within his oeuvre of works that he considered to be of the highest quality and that, if possible, he did not wish to sell.
A closely comparable work title Vollmond über der Stadt Bejodte (Werk no. 1927-7) is in the Kasama Nichido Museum of Art, Japan (see Masterpieces of the Kasama Nichido Museum of Art Collection, Tokyo, 1989, illustration in colour). It depicts a similarly constructed architectural scene with multi-coloured flags and a moon, executed in the same palette and grainy technique.
Grohmann saw this work as enshrining the memories of Kairouan with the developments of calligraphic lines of 1924-25; 'The lacy line patterns remain bound up with the themes of garden and architecture...This calligraphic technique easily transmutes an architectural structure into a phantasm. Flag-decked City (1927) gives the impression of an enchanted castle out of the Arabian Nights; the silvery moon of Kairouan shines out from a deep blue sky, and the red and yellow flags are just as much astral bodies as festive decorations" (Paul Klee, London, 1954, p. 257).
The architecture of Beflaggte Stadt may also owe something to Klee's 1926 visit to Italy where he stayed at Florence, Pisa and Ravenna before arriving in Elba. As he remarked in his journal, "Once again I went in search of something to stimulate harmonies lying dormant within myself, small or big adventures in color." The architecture of the Tuscan and Lombard hill towns and their inhabitants love of colourful flags would appear to be a further inspiration for Beflaggte Stadt.
The inscription S.Cl. on the mount indicates Sonder Classe (the artist's way of spelling the words), a classification by the artist within his oeuvre of works that he considered to be of the highest quality and that, if possible, he did not wish to sell.
A closely comparable work title Vollmond über der Stadt Bejodte (Werk no. 1927-7) is in the Kasama Nichido Museum of Art, Japan (see Masterpieces of the Kasama Nichido Museum of Art Collection, Tokyo, 1989, illustration in colour). It depicts a similarly constructed architectural scene with multi-coloured flags and a moon, executed in the same palette and grainy technique.