Live Auction 14240Impressionist and Modern Works on Paper
Paul Klee (1879-1940)
Lot 123 WORKS ON PAPER FROM THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AVANT-GARDES
The Collection of a Scholar, Sold to Benefit Humanitarian Causes

Paul Klee (1879-1940)

Baum am Bach (Construction by the Brook)

Closed28 June 2017

Price Realised

GBP 62,500

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Paul Klee (1879-1940)
Baum am Bach (Construction by the Brook)
signed and dated 'Klee 22' (upper right); dated, numbered and inscribed '1922/13 Bau am Bach' (on the artist's mount)
pen and ink and watercolour on paper laid down on the artist's mount
image: 12 x 8 5/8 in. (30.4 x 22.2 cm.)
mount: 14 3/8 x 10 ¼ in. (36.5 x 26 cm.)
Executed in 1922

Lily Klee, Bern, by descent from the artist in 1940.
Klee-Gesellschaft, Bern, by 1946.
Curt Valentin [Bucholz Gallery], Berlin & New York.
Frederick, C. Schang, South Norwalk, United States, by 1950.
Berggruen & Cie, Paris.
Richard L. Feigen & Co., New York (no. 16231).
Frederick M. Stafford, New York; sale, Christie's, New York, 20 November 1986, lot 129.
Private collection, Italy, by whom acquired at the above sale.
Studio Simonis, Turin.
Acquired from the above by the present owner.

Specialist note

Bau am Bach is a fine example of Paul Klee’s unique poetic style. In the present lot, the artist’s serious artistic constructions are combined with his – also typical – childish side, in which he plays with pictorial elements, wittingly juxtaposing them. In this drawing the abstract lines, delicately drawn and balanced, seem to become figural elements and to be turning into a house and a small stream of water with a fir tree next to it. The composition is completed by a tiny full moon shining on the scene, which makes it even more delicate and surreal.