Inscription: Signed and inscribed (center right): Löwengruppe/ (zu beachten!)/ Klee; dated and numbered on cardboard (lower center): 1924 193
Marking: Watermark JWZ; swirled monogram
Otto Ralfs, Brunswick (by 1930–at least 1931); [Buchholz Gallery (Curt Valentin), New York, 1946; sold in 1946 to Odets]; Clifford Odets, New York and Los Angeles (from 1946); [J. B. Neumann, New York, from 1953]; G. David Thompson, Pittsburgh; [E. & A. Silberman Galleries, Inc. and Saidenberg Gallery, New York, 1955–57; owned jointly from May 1955; sold in November 1957 to Woolworth]; Robert F. Woolworth, San Francisco (1957); his former wife, Elizabeth Ann Coleman Woolworth, San Francisco (until 1966; sale, Parke Bernet Galleries, New York, May 19, 1966, no. 2); James Shapiro, New York; Heinz Berggruen, Paris and Berlin (1979–84; gift to MMA)
Brunswick. Schlossmuseum. "Paul-Klee-Ausstellung," January 10–February 14, 1926, no. 84 (as for sale, Mk. 500).
Oldenburg. Elisabethstrasse 2. "Vereinigung für junge Kunst," October 6–26, 1926, no catalogue.
Berlin. Nationalgalerie. "Zeichnungen von Paul Klee aus der Sammlung Otto Ralfs, Braunschweig," opened April 4, 1930, no. 38.
Hannover. Kestnergesellschaft. "Paul Klee: Gemälde, Aquarelle, Graphik 1903 bis 1930," March 7–April 5, 1931, unnumbered cat. (as "Löwengruppe," lent by Ralfs, Braunschweig).
New York. Saidenberg Gallery. "Paul Klee," October 10–November 19, 1955, no. 16 (as "Loewengruppe zu beachten [Group of lions to look at]").
Tokyo. Fuji Television Gallery. "Exhibition of Paul Klee," October 23–November 21, 1981, no. 13 (as "Löwengruppe—Zu beachten! [Group of Lions—Please Note!]," lent by Heinz Berggruen).
Osaka. Gallery Kasahara. "Exhibition of Paul Klee," November 27–December 12, 1981, 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. 193).
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. 203).
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. 203).
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Humor of Klee," May 14 or 15–October 4, 1992, no catalogue.
Staatliche Museen zu Berlin. Sammlung Berggruen. "Klee aus New York: Hauptwerke der Sammlung Berggruen im Metropolitan Museum of Art," June 4–October 18, 1998, no. 29.
Jena. Stadtmuseum Göhre. "Paul Klee in Jena 1924," March 14–April 25, 1999, unnumbered cat. (p. 275).
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Klee Landscapes," November 1, 2005–March 5, 2006, 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.
James Smith Pierce. Paul Klee and Primitive Art. PhD diss., Institute of Fine Arts, New York University. New York, 1976, pp. 123, 177 n. 86.
Haruo Arikawa inExhibition of Paul Klee. Exh. cat., Fuji Television Gallery. Tokyo, 1981, p. 68, no. 13, ill. p. 38.
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. 192–93, 283, 318, ill. (color and bw), notes that the same group of lions appears in the 1923 watercolor "Lions, Take Note of Them!" (Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf; HR 3249).
Annegret Janda. Das Schicksal einer Sammlung: Aufbau und Zerstörung der neuen Abteilung der Nationalgalerie im ehemaligen Kronprinzen-Palais unter den Linden, 1918–1945. Exh. cat., Neue Nationalgalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin. Berlin, 1988, p. 53, notes that this picture was among those lent by Ralfs to the Nationalgalerie, Berlin in 1930, adding that in 1931 Ralfs offered his collection for sale but the Nationalgalerie declined because of insufficient funds.
Josef Helfenstein and Christian Rümelin, ed. Paul Klee: Catalogue Raisonné. Ed. Paul Klee Foundation, Museum of Fine Arts, Berne. Vol. 4, 1923–1926. New York, 2000, pp. 113, 142, 243, no. 3565, ill., call it "Löwengruppe 'zu beachten!' (Group of Lions 'Attention Please!')".
Vivian Endicott Barnett. The Blue Four Collection at the Norton Simon Museum. [Pasadena], 2002, p. 326.
Marie Kakinuma in Wolfgang Kersten Osamu Okuda and Marie Kakinuma. Paul Klee—Sonderklasse, unverkäuflich. Exh. cat., Zentrum Paul Klee, Bern. Cologne, 2015, p. 291, fig. 55 (color).
Paul Klee (German (born Switzerland), Münchenbuchsee 1879–1940 Muralto-Locarno)
1929
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