Although he is known mainly as a draftsman and painter, Paul Klee's first major work was actually an etching. The Inventions, of which the next two lots form a part, were the result of years of rigorous study both of anatomy and major works of art, and especially the study of the printmaking of Francisco Goya. The Inventions are challenging in their imagery and in their content.

PAUL KLEE (1879-1940)

Jungfrau im Baum - Inv. 3 (Kornfeld 4)

Details

PAUL KLEE (1879-1940)
Jungfrau im Baum - Inv. 3 (Kornfeld 4)
etching, 1903, on thick wove paper, Kornfeld's state a (of b), signed in pencil, annotated indistinctly and dedicated 'to J.G. Castella', a proof before the edition of 30 in state b, with wide margins (the left, right and lower margins re-attached at the platemark), an unobtrusive repaired vertical fold at center, otherwise generally in good condition, framed
P. 9¼ x 11¾ in. (235 x 299 mm.)
S. 11 5/8 x 15½ in. (295 x 394 mm.)

Provenance

Collection of Sir Rex de C. Nan Kivell, Sotheby's, London, October 4, 1977, lot 97.
Alice Adam Ltd., Chicago.
Acquired from the above by the present owner, 1977.

Exhibited

The Chicago Art Institute, Graphic Modernism: Selections from the Francey and Dr. Martin L. Gecht Collection, November 15, 2003-January 11, 2004, p. 69, no. 58 (illustrated in color).

Further details

Lot Essay

In The Virgin in the Tree, the image of a female nude uncomfortably balanced just beyond the viewer is an enigmatic image which can be explained by an examination of Klee's letter to his fiancé, Lily Stumpf, dated July 1903. "What can one infer from it? A truth, at least, of forced but sacred virginity which is, of course, of no use at all. A criticism of bourgeois society." (quoted in Comte, Paul Klee, Woodstock, 1989, p. 10).

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