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Lot 3241* - A197 Impressionist & Modern Art - Friday, 02. July 2021, 05.00 PM

PAUL KLEE

(Münchenbuchsee 1879–1940 Muralto)
Côte de Provence 5. 1927.
Watercolour on paper, on a second paper on artist's board.
Signed upper right: Klee. Dated lower left on the artist's board: 1927 X.3, and titled lower right: Côte de Provence 5.
11.4 x 32 cm.

Provenance:
- Alfred Flechtheim, Dusseldorf/Berlin/Paris/London, from 1928.
- Lilly Klee collection, Bern, 1940–42.
- Bettie Thommen, Basel, from 1942.
- Yuji Okuso, Tokyo.
- Auction Sotheby's, London, 5 December 1990, lot 341.
- Presumably private collection Europe, acquired at the above auction.
- Auction Sotheby's, New York, 18 November 1998, lot 377.
- Private collection, Italy, acquired at the above auction.

Literature:
- Paul-Klee-Stiftung and Kunstmuseum Bern (ed.): Catalogue raisonné Paul Klee, vol. 5 (1927–1939), Bern 2001, p. 139, no. 4447 (with ill.).
- Jürg Spiller (ed.): Paul Klee. Unendliche Naturgeschichte. Prinzipielle Ordnung der bildnerischen Mittel verbunden mit Naturstudium, und konstruktive Kompositionswege. Form- und Gestaltungslehre, vol. 2, Basel/Stuttgart 1970, p. 124 (with ill. p. 379).
- Wolfgang Kersten and Osamu Okuda: Paul Klee. Im Zeichen der Teilung, Düsseldorf/Stuttgart 1995, p. 185 (with ill. p. 355).

In July of 1926 Klee moved to Dessau with his family. There he lived side-by-side with the Kandinskys in two semi-detached houses built by Walter Gropius for Bauhaus masters. Five years earlier, at Gropius’ invitation, Klee had joined the faculty at the Bauhaus in Weimar . The years that Klee spent at the Bauhaus were also some of the most innovative and productive of his career. Inspired by the Bauhaus belief in constructivist art, Klee's works became increasingly abstract and geometric.

The present intensely coloured watercolour, ‘Provence 5’, is a magnificent example of this new influence. In 1927 Klee painted a series of seven watercolours (Provence 1 to Provence 7) characterised by a captivating combination of small geometric forms, carefully inscribed lines and script-like symbols. For Klee, colour remained one of the most important elements in art and is a particularly distinctive feature of ‘Côte de Provence 5’.


CHF 220 000 / 300 000 | (€ 226 800 / 309 280)

Sold for CHF 341 900 (including buyer’s premium)
All information is subject to change.