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Artwork Details
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Title:Sketch of Felix Klee
Artist:Paul Klee (German (born Switzerland), Münchenbuchsee 1879–1940 Muralto-Locarno)
Date:1908
Medium:Ink wash on paper, bordered with ink, mounted on cardboard
Dimensions:12 7/8 × 9 7/8 in. (32.7 × 25.1 cm)
Classification:Drawings
Credit Line:The Berggruen Klee Collection, 1984
Object Number:1984.315.2
Inscription: Signed (lower right): Klee; dated and inscribed on cardboard (lower left): 1908 73 Bildnisscizze n. Felix
the artist, Bern (1908–probably 1925; sent in 1919 among 45 works to Eckhart von Sydow, Leipzig; von Sydow purchased 3 works, returning the others, including this one, to Klee); Mr. and Mrs. Heissler, Strasbourg (probably from 1925); by descent to their daughter and son-in-law, France (until 1983; sale, Sotheby's, London, December 7, 1983, no. 316, sold to Berggruen); Heinz Berggruen, Paris and Berlin (1983–84; his gift to MMA)
Hannover. Kestner-Gesellschaft. "XXIX. Sonder-ausstellung. Paul Klee, Lyonel Feininger: Gemälde, Graphik," November 30, 1919–January 1, 1920, no. 92 (as "Bilderskizze nach Felix").
Munich. Galerie Neue Kunst Hans Goltz. "Paul Klee," May–June 1920, no. 261 (as "Bildnisskizze Felix," for sale) [catalogue published in "Der Ararat" 2, May–June 1920, p. 24].
Berlin. Galerie Der Sturm. "Paul Klee. Hans Mattis Teutsch. Gesamtschau," July–August 1921, no. 68.
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. 58).
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. 55).
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. 55).
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Paul Klee: Figures and Faces," August 23–November 16, 1997, no catalogue.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Klee Figures," October 5, 2001–March 10, 2002, no catalogue.
Berlin. Neue Nationalgalerie. "Das Universum Klee / The Klee Universe," October 31, 2008–February 8, 2009, unnumbered cat. (p. 102; as "Bildnisscizze n. Felix [Portrait Sketch of Felix]").
Ottawa. National Gallery of Canada. "Paul Klee: The Berggruen Collection from the Metropolitan Museum of Art," November 16, 2018–March 17, 2019, no catalogue.
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. 58–59, 271, 317, ill. (color and bw), notes that it was among 45 works sent by Klee to Eckhart von Sydow, Leipzig in early 1919, and that von Sydow kept three, returning the others, including this work.
Jane Norrie. "Paul Klee." Arts Review 41 (June 2, 1989), p. 439.
Osamu Okuda. "Paul Klee: Buchhaltung, Werkbezeichnung und Werkprozess." Radical Art History: Internationale Anthologie. Subject: O. K. Werckmeister. Ed. Wolfgang Kersten. Zurich, 1997, p. 378 n. 13.
Josef Helfenstein and Christian Rümelin, ed. Paul Klee: Catalogue Raisonné. Ed. Paul Klee Foundation, Museum of Fine Arts, Berne. Vol. 1, 1883–1912. New York, 1998, p. 264, no. 374, ill., as "Bildnisscizze n. Felix (Portrait Sketch of Felix)".
Paul Klee (German (born Switzerland), Münchenbuchsee 1879–1940 Muralto-Locarno)
1929
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