Paul Klee | Hammamet with Its Mosque | The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Hammamet with Its Mosque

Artist: Paul Klee (German (born Switzerland), Münchenbuchsee 1879–1940 Muralto-Locarno)

Date: 1914

Medium: Watercolor and graphite on paper mounted on cardboard

Dimensions: 8 1/8 x 7 5/8 in. (20.6 x 19.4 cm)

Classification: Drawings

Credit Line: The Berggruen Klee Collection, 1984

Accession Number: 1984.315.4

Not on view

Description Object Information Related Objects Online Resources Video Audio

Klee's artistic training, which began in 1898, when he went to Munich for three years to learn to draw and paint, can be said to have lasted until 1914, when he visited Tunisia. The light of North Africa aroused in him a sense of color, and there Klee made his now-famous statement: "Color and I are one. I am a painter."

On April 14, 1914, Klee visited Hammamet, a small town on the Mediterranean, northwest of Tunis. He captured a view of the city in Hammamet with Its Mosque, a watercolor painted from outside the city walls. As happens so often in Klee's works, the picture consists of representational as well as nonrepresentational elements. The upper part shows the mosque surrounded by two towers and gardens; the lower area is made up of translucent color planes, following Robert Delaunay's (1885–1941) example of making pure color and its contrasts the sole subject of a picture.

With Heinz Berggruen's gift of ninety works by Paul Klee, the Museum became an important center for the study of the artist. The outstanding examples that Berggruen gathered span Klee's entire career, from his student days in Bern during the 1890s until his death in 1940. Comprehensive in its variety and extraordinary in its quality, The Berggruen Klee Collection comprises eleven oil paintings, seventy-one watercolors, and eight black-on-white drawings.

Signatures, Inscriptions, and Markings

Inscription: Signed (upper left): Klee; dated and inscribed on cardboard (lower left): 1914 199 Hammamet mit der Moschee
Exhibition History

Munich. Galerie Neue Kunst Hans Goltz. "Paul Klee," May–June 1920, no. 89 [catalogue published in "Der Ararat" 2, May–June 1920, p. 22].

Musée des Beaux Arts, Liège. "Dix ans d'APIAW: Salon du Dixième Anniversaire," April 28–May 27, 1956, no. 44 (as "Hammamet et la mosquée," lent by J. B. Urvater, Bruxelles).

Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam. "Paul Klee," February 8–March 25, 1957, no. 8 (lent by J. B. Urvater, Brussels).

Palais des Beaux Arts, Brussels. "Paul Klee," March 29–May 12, 1957, no. 8 (lent by J. B. Urvater, Brussels).

Kröller Müller Museum. "De Grote Belgische Verzameligen. Verzamelig Urvater," June 29–September 2, 1957, no. 55.

Leicester Museum and Art Gallery. "Paintings from the Urvater Collection," September 13–October 4, 1958, no. 39.

York, England. York Art Gallery. "Paintings from the Urvater Collection," October 11–November 11, 1958, no. 39.

London. Tate Gallery. "Paintings from the Urvater Collection," November 12–December 14,1958, no. 39.

New York. Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. "Paul Klee 1879–1940: A Retrospective Exhibition," February 17–April 30, 1967, no. 18 (as "Hammamet with the Mosque," lent by Heinz Berggruen, Paris).

Kunsthalle Basel. "Paul Klee 1879–1940. Gesamtausstellung," June 3–August 13, 1967, no. 22 (lent by Heinz Berggruen, Paris).

Paris. Musée National d'Art Moderne. "Paul Klee," November 25, 1969–February 16, 1970, no. 17 (lent by Heinz Berggruen, Paris).

Turin. Galleria Civica d'Arte Moderna. "Il Cavaliere Azzurro. Der Blaue Reiter," March 18–May 9, 1971, unnumbered cat. (p. 228; lent by Heinz Berggruen, Paris).

Saint-Paul-de-Vence. Fondation Maeght. "Paul Klee," July 9–September 30, 1977, no. 7 (lent by a private collection, Paris).

Munich. Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus. "Paul Klee: Das Frühwerk 1883–1922," December 12, 1979–March 2, 1980, no. 264 (lent by a private collection, Switzerland).

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Selection Two: Twentieth Century Art," June 4–September 2, 1985, 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. 65).

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. 61).

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. 61).

Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris. "Figures du Moderne 1905–1914. L'Expressionisme en Allemagne—Dresden, Munich, Berlin," November 18, 1992–March 14, 1993, no. 287.

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.

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Landscapes by Klee and Kiefer," January 12–September 30, 2001, no catalogue.

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. "The Philippe de Montebello Years: Curators Celebrate Three Decades of Acquisitions," October 24, 2008–February 1, 2009, online catalogue.

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Klee: Path to Abstraction," April 9–August 4, 2013, no catalogue.
References

Emile Langui. Collection Urvater. Exh. cat., Kröller Müller Museum, Otterlo. Brussels, 1957, unpaginated, no. 55, ill.

Felix Klee. Paul Klee: 12 aquarelles. Paris, 1964, unpaginated, colorpl. 1.

Jean Christophe Amman. "Die Tunesian Aquarelle Paul Klees von 1914." Kunst Nachrichten 2 (December 1965), ill.

Will Grohmann. Paul Klee. New York, [1967], pp. 20, 74–75, 138, ill. (color).

Uta Laxner. "Stilanalytische Untersuchungen zu den Aquarellen de Tunisreise 1914: Macke, Klee, Moilliet." PhD. diss., Universität Bonn, 1967, pp. 139–42, 146–49, 162–63, 177, no. 41.

Thomas M. Messer. Paul Klee Exhibition at the Guggenheim Museum: A Post Scriptum. New York, 1968, pp. 8, 31, ill. p. 11 (color).

Denys Chevalier. Klee. New York, 1971, p. 28, ill. p. 6 (color).

Thomas M. Messer. "Paul Klee at the Baltimore Museum of Art." Baltimore Museum of Art Annual 4, no. 12 (1972), p. 71, fig. 2.

Hisao Miyajima. "Paul Klee—The Mitos of Plastic Thinking." Monthly Art Magazine Bijutso Techo 28 (October 1976), ill. p. 86.

Daniel Abadie. Paul Klee. [Paris], 1977, ill. p. 35.

H. H. Arnason. History of Modern Art: Painting, Sculpture, Architecture. Rev. ed. New York, 1977, p. 265, colorpl. 106.

Magdalena Droste in Paul Klee: Das Frühwerk 1883–1922. Ed. Armin Zweite. Exh. cat., Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus. Munich, 1979, p. 416, no. 264.

Regula Suter-Raeber in Paul Klee. Das Frühwerk 1883–1922. Ed. Armin Zweite. Exh. cat., Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus. Munich, 1979, pp. 133, 140, 143, 147, ill. p. 142 (color).

Jean Duvignaud. Klee en Tunisie. Lausanne, 1980, ill. p. 62 (color).

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. 10–14, 54–55, 65, pl. 6.

Beeke Sell Tower. Klee and Kandinsky in Munich and at the Bauhaus. PhD. diss., . Ann Arbor, 1981, pp. 94–95, 292 n. 11, fig. 24.

Christian Geelhaar. Paul Klee: Life and Work. Woodbury, N. Y., 1982, pp. 21–22, fig. 15 [German ed., Cologne, 1974, pp. 29–30, ill.].

Ernst Gerhard Güse, ed. Die Tunisreise: Klee, Macke, Moilliet. Exh. cat., Westfälisches Landesmuseum für Kunst und Kulturgeschichte. Münster, 1982, p. 142, ill. and ill. p. 56.

Claude Frontisi. "A propos d'une aquarelle de Paul Klee... (Syntagma Anatomicum)." Image et Signification, Rencontres de 'Ecole du Louvre. Paris, 1983, p. 6, ill.

Margareta Benz Zauner. Werkanalytische Untersuchungen zu den Tunesien Aquarellen Paul Klees. Frankfurt, 1984, pp. 8, 47, 49–52, 75, 79, 85, 163, 171, 174, 188, 192, pl. 13.

Jim M. Jordan. Paul Klee and Cubism. Princeton, 1984, pp. 117, 126–27, 135–36, 139, colorpl. II.

Kay Larson. "The Met's Modern Movement." New York Magazine (August 26, 1985), ill. p. 98 (color).

Sabine Rewald in The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Notable Acquisitions, 1984–1985. New York, 1985, pp. 52–53, ill. (color).

Wolfgang Kersten. Paul Klee. "Zerstorung, der Konstruktion zuliebe?". Ed. Heinrich Klotz. Marburg, 1987, pp. 13–17, 51, 96–98, 143 n. 45, pp. 146, 153, fig. 1 and ill. p. 13.

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. 64–67, 271, 317, ill. (color, overall and detail, and bw).

Philippe Comte. Klee. [Paris], 1989, pp. 21, 56, 58, pl. 72.

Robin Stemp. "Artist as Transmitter." Artist (September 1989), ill. p. 18 (color).

Claude Frontisi. Klee. Anatomie d'Aphrodite. Le polyptyque démembré. Paris, 1990, pp. 25–28, fig. 14.

Jenny Anger. "Book Reviews: How Many Klees Today?" Revue d'art canadienne/ Canadian Art Review 18, no. 1/2 (1991), p. 106.

Rainer Crone. "Cosmic Fragments of Meaning: On the Syllables of Paul Klee." Paul Klee: Legends of the Sign. New York, 1991, pp. 22–27, 30, fig. 5.

Ulrich Bischoff. Paul Klee. Munich, 1992, p. 30.

Marc Le Bot. Paul Klee. [Paris], 1992, p. 75, ill. p. 67 (color).

Jenny Anger. "Modernism and the Gendering of Paul Klee." PhD. diss., Brown University, 1997, vol. 1, p. 205.

Stefan Frey in Paul Klee: Reisen in den Süden. Eds. Uta Gerlach Laxner and Ellen Schwinzer. Exh. cat., Gustav Lübcke Museum, Hamm. Ostfildern, 1997, p. 246.

Josef Helfenstein and Christian Rümelin, eds. Paul Klee: Catalogue Raisonné. Vol. 2, 1913–1918. Ed. Paul Klee Foundation, Museum of Fine Arts, Berne. New York, 2000, pp. 158, 205, no. 1302, ill.

Will Grohmann. Der Maler Paul Klee. 4th ed. (1st ed., 1966). Cologne, 2003, pp. 16, 54, 118, no. 3, ill. p. 55 (color) [German ed. of Ref. Grohmann 1967].

Jenny Anger. Paul Klee and the Decorative in Modern Art. Cambridge, England, 2004, pp. 146, 233.

Olivier Berggruen in The Klee Universe. Eds. Dieter Scholz and Christina Thomson. Exh. cat., Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin. Ostfildern, 2008, p. 82.

Emile Langui in Urvater: Histoire d'une collection. Oostkamp, Belgium, 2013, p. 87, ill. p. 100 (color).

Michael Baumgartner in The Journey to Tunisia, 1914: Paul Klee, August Macke, Louis Moilliet. Ed. Zentrum Paul Klee. Exh. cat., Zentrum Paul Klee, Bern. Ostfildern, 2014, pp. 126 n. 49, p. 320, no. 39, ill. p. 156 (color).