Three Houses

Paul Klee German, born Switzerland

1922

Not on view

Not surprisingly, the works Klee painted during his tenure at the Bauhaus, from 1921 to 1931, often relate to the subjects of his courses. His so-called color-gradation pictures from 1921 to 1923 correspond to his preoccupation with color theory at that time. In this watercolor, he chose to work with what he called "false color pairs," that is, such secondary colors as green and orange, orange and violet, and violet and green. When mixed in equal parts, these pairs turn into a bluish gray.

Artwork Details

Title: Three Houses
Artist: Paul Klee (German (born Switzerland), Münchenbuchsee 1879–1940 Muralto-Locarno)
Date: 1922
Medium: Watercolor on paper, bordered with watercolor, mounted on cardboard
Dimensions: 9 5/8 × 13 1/2 in. (24.4 × 34.3 cm)
Classification: Drawings
Credit Line: The Berggruen Klee Collection, 1984
Object Number: 1984.315.30
Rights and Reproduction: © 2026 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Curatorial Department: Modern and Contemporary Art

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