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Lot Essay
In 1901, at the age of 21, Klee noted in his diary: "thoughts about the art of portraiture. Some will not recognize the truthfulness of my mirror. Let them remember that I am not here to reflect the surface (this can be done by the photographic plate), but must penetrate inside. My mirror probes down to the heart. I write words on the forehead and around the corners of the mouth. My human faces are truer than the real ones" (The Diaries of Paul Klee, 1898-1918, Berkeley, 1964, pp. 47-48).
Painted twenty-six years later, Figurine die Alte realizes this youthful ambition. Although Klee never became a portrait painter in the traditional sense of representing a real person, he was interested in pictorially realizing a role. In his discussion of Klee's figure paintings of the 1920s, Will Grohmann observes: "when the drama depends on a single figure the structure is more concentrated; that is, where Klee reduces the drama to a single character he simplifies the picture to an enigmatic minimum" (Paul Klee, London, 1969, p. 199).
In Figurine die Alte an old woman is rendered using complementary shapes and bright tones set against a neutral background. Oil paint is thickly applied in places. The woman is wide eyed and appears to be gesticulating. This is not a likeness of a specific individual but a character type. Figurine die Alte can be described as familiar but also sentimental, comical and a little peculiar. Christina Thompson notes, "Klee's observations of the human psyche seldom appear as self-referential character studies in which the individual occupies the attention. Klee instead presents the human being as a creature perpetually in dialogue with his surroundings. As with everything else on earth, the human being can also only exist as a part of the greater whole. Klee thereby presents us with character portraits, which in their ambiguity always keep an interpretative back door open" (The Klee Universe, exh. cat., Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin, 2008, pp. 131-132).
Painted twenty-six years later, Figurine die Alte realizes this youthful ambition. Although Klee never became a portrait painter in the traditional sense of representing a real person, he was interested in pictorially realizing a role. In his discussion of Klee's figure paintings of the 1920s, Will Grohmann observes: "when the drama depends on a single figure the structure is more concentrated; that is, where Klee reduces the drama to a single character he simplifies the picture to an enigmatic minimum" (Paul Klee, London, 1969, p. 199).
In Figurine die Alte an old woman is rendered using complementary shapes and bright tones set against a neutral background. Oil paint is thickly applied in places. The woman is wide eyed and appears to be gesticulating. This is not a likeness of a specific individual but a character type. Figurine die Alte can be described as familiar but also sentimental, comical and a little peculiar. Christina Thompson notes, "Klee's observations of the human psyche seldom appear as self-referential character studies in which the individual occupies the attention. Klee instead presents the human being as a creature perpetually in dialogue with his surroundings. As with everything else on earth, the human being can also only exist as a part of the greater whole. Klee thereby presents us with character portraits, which in their ambiguity always keep an interpretative back door open" (The Klee Universe, exh. cat., Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin, 2008, pp. 131-132).