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Artwork Details
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Title:Municipal Jewel
Artist:Paul Klee (German (born Switzerland), Münchenbuchsee 1879–1940 Muralto-Locarno)
Date:1917
Medium:Watercolor, gouache, and graphite on gesso on paper mounted on cardboard
Dimensions:6 5/8 × 10 1/4 in. (16.8 × 26 cm)
Classification:Drawings
Credit Line:The Berggruen Klee Collection, 1984
Object Number:1984.315.12
Inscription: Initialed (lower right): Kl; dated and inscribed on cardboard (lower left) 1917 4
[Galerie Neue Kunst Hans Goltz, Munich, from 1917; purchased from the artist in 1917 with four other Klee works, for 900 M total]; the artist, Weimar (in 1923, in exchange for a carpet by Kerkovius, to Kerkovius); Ida Kerkovius, Stuttgart (1923–d. 1970; her bequest to Leonhard); Kurt Leonhard, Stuttgart (from 1970); [Galerie Tarica, Paris; sold to Benador]; [Galerie Jacques Benador, Geneva, until 1972; sold in 1972 to Berggruen]; Heinz Berggruen, Paris and Berlin (1972–84; on consignment to Fuji Television Gallery, Tokyo, 1981; his gift to MMA)
Munich. Münchener Neue Secession. "III. Ausstellung," opened June 10, 1917, no. 103 (as "Aquarell," for sale).
Kunstgebäude Stuttgart. "Üecht Gruppe: 2. Herbstschau Neuer Kunst," October 1920.
Tokyo. Fuji Television Gallery. "Exhibition of Paul Klee," October 23–November 21, 1981, no. 3 (as "Städtische Juwel [Town Jewel]").
Osaka. Gallery Kasahara. "Exhibition of Paul Klee," November 27–December 12, 1981, no catalogue.
New York. Leonard Hutton Galleries. "The Blue Four: Feininger, Jawlensky, Kandinsky, Paul Klee," March 30–May 24, 1984, no. 53.
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. 78).
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. 75).
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. 75).
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Klee in Munich," January 12–July 21, 1996, 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. "Cityscapes by Klee and Feininger," September 25, 2002–January 26, 2003, no catalogue.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Klee Abstract," September 5–December 7, 2003, no catalogue.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Klee: Path to Abstraction," April 9–August 4, 2013, no catalogue.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art [The Met Breuer]. "Humor and Fantasy: The Berggruen Paul Klee Collection," September 1, 2016–January 2, 2017, no catalogue.
Ottawa. National Gallery of Canada. "Paul Klee: The Berggruen Collection from the Metropolitan Museum of Art," November 16, 2018–March 17, 2019, no catalogue.
Ida Kerkovius inErinnerungen an Paul Klee. Ed. Ludwig Grote. Munich, 1959, p. 57, recalls choosing one of Klee's oil paintings in exchange for making him a carpet.
Kurt Leonhard. Ida Kerkovius: Leben und Werk. Cologne, 1967, ill. p. 106 (installation photo, Kerkovius's study, ca. 1962).
Haruo Arikawa inExhibition of Paul Klee. Exh. cat., Fuji Television Gallery. Tokyo, 1981, p. 65, no. 3, ill. p. 22, erroneously lists the Ulmer Museum in the provenance.
O[tto]. K[arl]. Werckmeister. Versuche über Paul Klee. Frankfurt, 1981, p. 48.
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. 78–79, 273, 317, ill. (color and bw), states that it is probably one of the first works painted by Klee while assigned to an office job at flight training school in Gersthofen.
O[tto]. K. Werckmeister. The Making of Paul Klee's Career, 1914–1920. Chicago, 1989, p. 98, calls it "Urban Jewel"; notes that it was purchased from Exh. Munich 1917 by Hans Goltz.
Wolfgang Kersten and Osamu Okuda. Paul Klee. Im Zeichen der Teilung. Exh. cat., Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen. Düsseldorf, 1995, ill. p. 332, reproduce its original format as a single composition, above "Bright Architecture" (Galleria La Bussola, Turin; Helfenstein and Rümelin 2000, no. 1688).
Jenny Anger. "Modernism and the Gendering of Paul Klee." PhD diss., Brown University, 1997, vol. 1, pp. 87, 89, 90 n. 201, p. 100; vol. 2, fig. 57 (color), calls it "Urban Jewel".
Eva-Marina Froitzheim inIda Kerkovius: Im Zauber der Farbe. Exh. cat., Städtische Galerie Böblingen. Ostfildern, 1998, pp. 29, 34 n. 27, ill. frontispiece (installation photo of Kerkovius's study), states that while a student at the Bauhaus, Kerkovius wove a carpet for a Klee and in exchange received this picture from the artist, which hung in her study until her death, when it was bequeathed to Leonhard
.
Katharina Hadding inIda Kerkovius: Im Zauber der Farbe. Exh. cat., Städtische Galerie Böblingen. Ostfildern, 1998, p. 105.
Josef Helfenstein and Christian Rümelin, ed. Paul Klee: Catalogue Raisonné. Ed. Paul Klee Foundation, Museum of Fine Arts, Berne. Vol. 2, 1913–1918. New York, 2000, p. 370, no. 1687, ill., as "Städtisches Juwel (Urban Jewel)".
Gerhard Leistner inIda Kerkovius (1879–1970): Gemälde, Pastelle, Aquarelle, Zeichnungen, Teppiche. Retrospektive. Ed. Gerhard Leistner. Exh. cat., Museum Ostdeutsche Galerie. Regensburg, 2001, p. 18, notes that in 1923 Kerkovius received a 1920 [sic] watercolor in exchange for making a carpet for Klee.
Iris Cramer inIda Kerkovius (1879–1970): Gemälde, Pastelle, Aquarelle, Zeichnungen, Teppiche. Retrospektive. Ed. Gerhard Leistner. Exh. cat., Museum Ostdeutsche Galerie. Regensburg, 2001, p. 43.
Jenny Anger. Paul Klee and the Decorative in Modern Art. Cambridge, England, 2004, pp. 96–98, 102, 216, 267 nn. 4, 7, p. 286 n. 99, fig. 36, calls it "Urban Jewel".
Ingrid Radewaldt. "Ida Kerkovius." Bauhaus Women: Art, Handicraft, Design. Paris, 2009, p. 33, refers to it as "a watercolor from 1920".
Gesa Jürss inIda Kerkovius: "Meine Welt ist die Farbe". Ed. Ingrid Mössinger. Exh. cat., Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz. Chemnitz, 2014, p. 80.
Paul Klee (German (born Switzerland), Münchenbuchsee 1879–1940 Muralto-Locarno)
1921
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