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Artwork Details
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Title:Little Hope
Artist:Paul Klee (German (born Switzerland), Münchenbuchsee 1879–1940 Muralto-Locarno)
Date:1938
Medium:Plaster and watercolor on burlap mounted on cardboard
Dimensions:18 1/8 × 20 3/8 in. (46 × 51.8 cm)
Classification:Paintings
Credit Line:The Berggruen Klee Collection, 1984
Object Number:1984.315.58
Inscription: Signed (upper right): Klee; dated and inscribed on cardboard (lower left): 1938 qu 14/ VIII; (lower right): wenig Hoffnung
the artist, Bern (1938–d. 1940); his widow, Lily Klee, Bern (1940–43; sold in 1943 to Rupf); Hermann and Margrit Rupf, Bern (1943–probably ca. 1961; sold ca. 1961 to Berggruen); [Berggruen et Cie, Paris, in 1961]; Peter O'Toole, London; Rodriguez Betancourt, Mexico City (until 1979; sale, Sotheby's, London, December 5, 1979, no. 60); Heinz Berggruen, Paris and Berlin (1979–84; his gift to MMA)
Kunsthaus Zürich. "Klee," February 16–March 25, 1940, no. 55 (as for sale, SFr 900).
Kunsthalle Bern. "Gedächtnisausstellung Paul Klee," November 9–December 8, 1940, no. 148 (as for sale, SFr 1,000).
Kunstmuseum Bern. "Stiftung und Sammlung Hermann und Margrit Rupf," February 4–April 2, 1956, no. 149.
Kunstmuseum Bern. "Paul Klee," August 11–November 4, 1956, no. 704 (lent by a private collection, Bern).
Paris. Berggruen et Cie. "Klee lui-même. 20 œuvres: 1907–1940," April 1961, unnumbered cat.
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. 257).
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. 267).
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. 267).
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Late Klee," December 6, 1996–April 13, 1997, no catalogue.
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 Paintings," September 14, 1999–March 12, 2000, no catalogue.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Klee Figures," October 5, 2001–March 10, 2002, no catalogue.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Klee: The Late Years," March 19–June 27, 2004, no catalogue.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Late Klee," October 18, 2012–March 31, 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.
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. 256–57, 288, 319, ill. (color and bw).
John Russell. "Playful Images Rich in Riddles by Paul Klee at the Met." New York Times (May 6, 1988), p. C1.
Siân Phillips. Public Places: My Life in the Theater, with Peter O'Toole and Beyond. New York, 2001, p. 181, recalls receiving this picture as a Christmas gift from Peter O'Toole.
Josef Helfenstein and Christian Rümelin, ed. Paul Klee: Catalogue Raisonné. Ed. Paul Klee Foundation, Museum of Fine Arts, Berne. Vol. 7, 1934–1938. New York, 2003, p. 438, no. 7456, ill.
Stefan Frey inBraque, Klee, Léger... L'art de collectionner: La Collection Rupf du Musée des beaux-arts de Berne. Exh. cat., Musée de Grenoble. Arles, 2006, p. 192, notes that when Hermann Rupf dissolved his Klee collection between 1950 and 1962, 58 works were sold to Berggruen.
Charlotte Healy. "Knotted, Woven, Unraveling: Textile as Structure in the Work of Paul Klee." Textile Moderne / Textile modernism. Ed. Burcu Dogramaci. Cologne, 2019, p. 124, fig. 5 (color).
Paul Klee (German (born Switzerland), Münchenbuchsee 1879–1940 Muralto-Locarno)
1929
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