Inscription: Signed (lower right): Klee; dated and inscribed on cardboard (lower center): 1921/113 Allerseelen Bild
the artist (sold for 5000 M to Poortvliet); Marie Tak van Poortvliet, The Hague (possibly until d. 1936); private collection (possibly 1936–1940s; sold in the 1940s, through Jan W. E. Buys, The Hague, for f 40, to Fischer); C. L. Fischer, Nunspeet, the Netherlands (1940s–1976; her gift in 1976 to Stiftung Bô Yin Râ); Stiftung Bô Yin Râ, Lugano (1976; sale, Sotheby's, Amsterdam, November 15, 1976, no. 209; sold to Berggruen); Heinz Berggruen, Paris and Berlin (1976–87; his gift to MMA)
Saint-Paul. Fondation Maeght. "Paul Klee," July 9–September 30, 1977, no. 37 (lent by a private collection, Paris).
Cologne. Kunsthalle. "Paul Klee. Das Werk der Jahre 1919–1933. Gemälde, Handzeichnungen, Druckgraphik," April 11–June 4, 1979, no. 47 (lent by a private collection, Paris).
Munich. Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus. "Paul Klee: Das Frühwerk 1883–1922," December 12, 1979–March 2, 1980, no. 452 (lent by a private collection, Switzerland).
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. 147).
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. 147).
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. 147).
Mexico City. Centro Cultural Arte Contemporáneo. "Paul Klee: Selección de sesenta obras. The Berggruen Klee Collection. The Metropolitan Museum of Art," October 1989–January 1990, no. 27.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Paul Klee: His Teaching Years," opened April 12, 1991, 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. 17.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Klee's Line," March 18–July 9, 2000, no catalogue.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Klee: His Years at the Bauhaus (1921–1931)," November 19, 2004–April 3, 2005, no catalogue.
London. Tate Modern. "The EY Exhibition—Paul Klee: Making Visible," October 16, 2013–March 9, 2014, unnumbered cat. (p. 86).
Ottawa. National Gallery of Canada. "Paul Klee: The Berggruen Collection from the Metropolitan Museum of Art," November 16, 2018–March 17, 2019, no catalogue.
New York. Di Donna. "Enchanted Reverie: Klee and Calder," April 18–June 8, 2024, unnumbered cat. (p. 125).
Will Grohmann. Paul Klee. New York, [1954], p. 28, suggests that the black borders painted around some of Klee's 1921 pictures, such as this one, may relate to his mother's death that year.
Will Grohmann. Paul Klee. New York, [1967], p. 26.
Daniel Abadie. Paul Klee. [Paris], 1977, p. 169, ill. p. 62.
Wolfgang Kersten. Paul Klee. "Zerstorung, der Konstruktion zuliebe?". Ed. Heinrich Klotz. Marburg, 1987, pp. 98, 152, includes a diagram showing a strip of paper from the top edge of the picture moved to the bottom.
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. 146–47, 279, 318, ill. (color and bw) and fig. 31 (the artist working on this picture in Possenhofen, on Lake Starnberg, Bavaria).
Josef Helfenstein and Christian Rümelin, ed. Paul Klee: Catalogue Raisonné. Ed. Paul Klee Foundation, Museum of Fine Arts, Berne. Vol. 3, 1919–1922. New York, 1999, pp. 321, 334, no. 2704, ill.
Vivian Endicott Barnett. The Blue Four Collection at the Norton Simon Museum. [Pasadena], 2002, p. 282.
Will Grohmann. Der Maler Paul Klee. 4th ed. (1st ed., 1966). Cologne, 2003, p. 23 [German ed. of Ref. Grohmann 1967].
Olivier Berggruen et al. Enchanted Reverie: Klee and Calder. Exh. cat., Di Donna. New York, 2024, pp. 124, 137, ill. p. 125 (color).
Paul Klee (German (born Switzerland), Münchenbuchsee 1879–1940 Muralto-Locarno)
1921
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