This image cannot be enlarged, viewed at full screen, or downloaded.
Artwork Details
Use your arrow keys to navigate the tabs below, and your tab key to choose an item
Title:Untitled
Artist:Paul Klee (German (born Switzerland), Münchenbuchsee 1879–1940 Muralto-Locarno)
Date:1914
Medium:Watercolor on paper mounted on cardboard
Dimensions:6 1/8 × 6 1/8 in. (15.6 × 15.6 cm)
Classification:Drawings
Credit Line:The Berggruen Klee Collection, 1984
Object Number:1984.315.6
Inscription: Signed (upper right): Kl.; dated and inscribed on cardboard (lower left): 1914 94
the artist, Munich (1914–20; sold in May or June 1920 to Goltz); [Galerie Neue Kunst Hans Goltz, Munich, from 1920]; Ida Bienert, Dresden and Munich; [Willi Raeber, Basel, until 1948; sale, Gutekunst & Klipstein, Bern, November 27, 1948, no. 156, as "Farbige Komposition," sold for SFr 350]; [Galerie Gérald Cramer, Geneva, from 1948]; [Galerie Saqqarah, Gstaad]; (sale, Sotheby's, London, July 3, 1974, no. 170, as "Aquarell, Deutsches Bütten," sold to Acquavella); [Acquavella Galleries, New York, 1974]; Heinz Berggruen, Paris and Berlin (1974–84; his gift to MMA)
Munich. Galerie Neue Kunst Hans Goltz. "Paul Klee," May–June 1920, no. 70 [catalogue published in "Der Ararat" 2, May–June 1920, p. 21].
Berlin. Der Sturm. "Reinhard Goering. Paul Klee. Gesamtschau," September 1920, no. 87 (as "1914 94").
Berlin. Der Sturm. "Paul Busch. Johannes Molzahn. Graphische Gesamtschau," December 1920, no. 104 (as "1914/94").
Tokyo. Fuji Television Gallery. "Exhibition of Paul Klee," October 23–November 21, 1981, no. 2 (as "Aquarell [wie 1914/85] (Watercolor [like 1914/85])," lent by Heinz Berggruen).
Osaka. Gallery Kasahara. "Exhibition of Paul Klee," November 27–December 12, 1981, no catalogue.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Paul Klee: The Berggruen Klee Collection in The Metropolitan Museum of Art," May 6–July 31, 1988, unnumbered cat. (p. 69).
Kunsthalle Tübingen. "Paul Klee: Die Sammlung Berggruen im Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York und im Musée National d'Art Moderne, Paris," January 22–April 16, 1989, unnumbered cat. (p. 63).
London. Tate Gallery. "Paul Klee: The Berggruen Collection in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York and the Musée National d'Art Moderne, Paris," May 17–August 13, 1989, unnumbered cat. (p. 63).
Mexico City. Centro Cultural Arte Contemporáneo. "Paul Klee: Selección de sesenta obras. The Berggruen Klee Collection. The Metropolitan Museum of Art," October 1989–January 1990, no. 3.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Klee in Munich," January 12–July 21, 1996, no catalogue.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Klee Landscapes," November 20, 1997–February 8, 1998, no catalogue.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Klee Cities," June 22–September 5, 1999, no catalogue.
London. Hayward Gallery. "Paul Klee: The Nature of Creation," January 17–April 1, 2002, no. 6 (as "Aquarell [Watercolour]").
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Klee's Best," May 24–September 22, 2002, no catalogue.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Klee the Voyager," February 4–May 4, 2003, no catalogue.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Klee Abstract," September 5–December 7, 2003, no catalogue.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "XS," December 6, 2011–April 15, 2012, no catalogue.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Klee: Path to Abstraction," April 9–August 4, 2013, no catalogue.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art [The Met Breuer]. "Humor and Fantasy: The Berggruen Paul Klee Collection," September 1, 2016–January 2, 2017, no catalogue.
Ottawa. National Gallery of Canada. "Paul Klee: The Berggruen Collection from the Metropolitan Museum of Art," November 16, 2018–March 17, 2019, no catalogue.
Jürgen Glaesemer. Paul Klee. Die farbigen Werke im Kunstmuseum Bern: Gemälde, farbige Blätter, Hinterglasbilder und Plastiken. Bern, 1976, p. 178, ill., calls it "Aquarell (wie 1914 85)" [as recorded in Klee's oeuvre catalogue; see Refs. Rewald 1988, p. 317, Helfenstein and Rümelin 2000, p. 170]; lists it as present location unknown; considers it to be the precursor to Klee's "Quadratbilder" (square pictures).
Eva-Maria Triska inPaul Klee. Das Werk der Jahre 1919–1933: Gemälde, Handzeichnungen, Druckgraphik. Exh. cat., Kunsthalle Köln. Cologne, 1979, pp. 48–49, ill. (color), calls it "Aquarell (wie 1914/ 85)".
Eva-Maria Triska. "Die Quadratbilder Paul Klees—ein Beitrag zur Analyse formaler Ausdrucksmittel in seinem Werk und seiner Theorie. Mit einem Exkurs zur Ableitung von Klees Farbenlehre." PhD diss., Universität Wien, 1980, pp. 11–12, pl. 7.
Haruo Arikawa inExhibition of Paul Klee. Exh. cat., Fuji Television Gallery. Tokyo, 1981, pp. 64–65, no. 2, ill. p. 24 (color), referring to the title "Aquarell (wie 1914 85), suggests that "1914 85" may be an unknown watercolor sketch executed in Tunisia [see Ref. Helfenstein and Rümelin 2000, no. 1185].
Yoshio Doi inExhibition of Paul Klee. Exh. cat., Fuji Television Gallery. Tokyo, 1981, p. 19, notes that it was painted in Munich, but influenced by Klee's trip to Tunisia earlier in 1914.
Beeke Sell Tower. Klee and Kandinsky in Munich and at the Bauhaus. PhD diss.Ann Arbor, 1981, p. 95.
Ernst-Gerhard Güse, ed. Die Tunisreise: Klee, Macke, Moilliet. Exh. cat., Westfälisches Landesmuseum für Kunst und Kulturgeschichte. Münster, 1982, ill. p. 195 (color), as in the collection of Acquavella Galleries, New York.
Christian Lenz inDelaunay und Deutschland. Ed. Peter-Klaus Schuster. Exh. cat., Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen/ Staatsgalerie moderne Kunst, Munich. Cologne, 1985, p. 231, calls it "Aquarell (wie 1914,85)".
Sabine Rewald. Paul Klee: The Berggruen Klee Collection in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1988, pp. 68–70, 272, 317, ill. (color and bw).
Phyllis Williams Lehmann. "A Roman Source for Klee's 'Athlete's Head'." Art Bulletin 72 (December 1990), p. 646 n. 39.
Ulrich Bischoff. Paul Klee. Munich, 1992, pp. 40, 174, ill. p. 49.
Josef Helfenstein and Christian Rümelin, ed. Paul Klee: Catalogue Raisonné. Ed. Paul Klee Foundation, Museum of Fine Arts, Berne. Vol. 2, 1913–1918. New York, 2000, p. 170, no. 1194, ill., call it "Aquarell (Watercolor)"; identify the related work "1914 85" recorded in Klee's oeuvre catalogue as "Aquarell mit d. grünen Kreuz (Watercolor with the Green Cross)," present location unknown, HR no. 1185.
Robert Kudielka inPaul Klee: The Nature of Creation, Works 1914–1940. Exh. cat., Hayward Gallery. London, 2002, pp. 31–32, 194, no. 6, ill. p. 37 (color).
Heike Biedermann. "Avantgarde als Lebensgefühl: Die Sammlerin Ida Bienert." Kunstsammlerinnen: Peggy Guggenheim bis Ingvild Goetz. Ed. Dorothee Wimmer et al. Berlin, 2009, p. 107, calls it "Deutsches Bütten".
Paul Klee (German (born Switzerland), Münchenbuchsee 1879–1940 Muralto-Locarno)
1921
Resources for Research
The Met's Libraries and Research Centers provide unparalleled resources for research and welcome an international community of students and scholars.
The Met Collection API is where all makers, creators, researchers, and dreamers can connect to the most up-to-date data and public domain images for The Met collection. Open Access data and public domain images are available for unrestricted commercial and noncommercial use without permission or fee.
Feedback
We continue to research and examine historical and cultural context for objects in The Met collection. If you have comments or questions about this object record, please complete and submit this form. The Museum looks forward to receiving your comments.
The Met's engagement with art from 1890 to today includes the acquisition and exhibition of works in a range of media, spanning movements in modernism to contemporary practices from across the globe.
