Gutachten:
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Provenienz:
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Ausstellungen:
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Ausstellung:
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Literatur:
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Provenance:
- Ida Bienert, Dresden/Munich, from 1932.
- With Marlborough Fine Art, London, 1987/88.
- Sale Christie's, London, 29.11.1988, Lot 362/B.
- Private collection, Italy, acquired at the above auction and by descent to the current owners.

Exhibited:
- Munich 1950, Die Maler am Bauhaus, Haus der Kunst, May–June 1950, no. 148.
- Venice 1954, XXVII Biennale di Venezia, Deutscher Pavillon, 19.6.–17.10.1954, no. 33.
- London 1966, Paul Klee, Marlborough Fine Art, June–July 1966, no. 42.
- New York 1969, Paul Klee. A Retrospective Exhibition, Saidenberg Gallery, 14.10.–19.11.1969, no. 37.

Literature:
- Paul Klee-Stiftung und Kunstmuseum Bern (ed.): Paul Klee. Catalogue raisonné, Bern 2002, vol VI, p. 151, no. 5665 (ill.).
- Will Grohmann (ed.): Privatsammlungen neuer Kunst. Die Sammlung Ida Bienert Dresden, Dresden 1933, vol. I, p. 22 (ill.).

In the present still life of 1931, created during Klee’s short time in Düsseldorf as a professor at the art academy, he experiments with materials, shapes and colors. A pattern of innumerable watercolor dabs weaves itself like a carpet on the primed surface. These not only vary in size and color, but are sometimes aligned horizontally and sometimes vertically, which brings to the picture a movement that is both intriguing and perplexing. Yet a sense of calm and structure are maintained in the composition with large, clearly defined formal elements – circles, ellipses, black lines – in the center and at the upper right and lower left edges of the picture. The color bands, painted in muted pastel tones, also contribute to the harmony of the whole.

This work was originally in the Ida Bienert Collection of Dresden: a remarkable private art collection established shortly before the First World War. Due to events of the period it was all but completed by 1933 and then its entire holdings remained unknown for a long time. In addition to Klee, Ida Bienert collected works by other Bauhaus artists; such as, Kandinsky, Feininger and Schlemmer, with whom she maintained close personal contact. Not only were the painters frequent guests at the Bienert house, but also Walter Gropius, the head of the Bauhaus.
Fortunately, her house remained virtually unscathed during the first bombing raids on Dresden from the night of February 13th to the 14th, 1945. Later it suffered major damage, but Ida Bienert had already moved the collection to Munich.