Live Auction 7858Impressionist/Modern Works on Paper
Paul Klee (1879-1940)
Lot 136 THE PROPERTY OF A PRIVATE EUROPEAN COLLECTOR

Paul Klee (1879-1940)

Luftkampf

Closed24 June 2010

Price Realised

GBP 25,000

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Paul Klee (1879-1940)
Luftkampf
signed 'Klee' (upper left); dated, numbered and titled '1919/257 Luftkampf' (on the artist's mount)
pencil on paper laid down on the artist's mount
Image: 11 x 8¾ in. (28 x 22 cm.)
Artist's mount: 15¾ x 14 3/8 in. (40 x 34 cm.)
Drawn in 1919

Anonymous sale, Kunstkabinett, Stuttgart, 3-4 May 1961, lot 241.
Anonymous sale, Sotheby's, London, 22 October 1997, lot 27.
Acquired at the above sale by the present owner.

Specialist note

During the First World War, Paul Klee served first in the Reserve Flying Division in Schleissheim and later at the Royal Bavarian Flying School in Gersthofen. At the flying school he was able to avoid the front and could paint when he was off-duty, turning to aeroplanes and 'Luftkmpfe', or aerial battles, for inspiration, also in the year after the war ended when he fled the political chaos of Germany for Switzerland.