Paul Klee

Paul clover Day haunting on the main square 1929 Watercolor and ink pen drawing on laid paper, mounted on cardboard. Watercolor 30,7/31,5 x 22,2/22,8 cm, cardboard 38,2 x 27,6 cm. Framed under glass. Signed 'Klee' upper right in the image, dated 'IV 1929.6' lower left on the cardboard and titled 'Tagesspuk auf dem Hauptplatz' on the right. - In good condition. Minimally browned. Cat. Rais. Paul Klee 4762 Provenance Heinrich Stinnes, Cologne, until 1932; estate of Heinrich Stinnes, Cologne, 1932-1938; Gutekunst und Klipstein, Bern, auction June 20-22, 1938, lot 537; Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler, Paris, from 1938; collection Joseph Heymann, London; since then in family possession Literature Christina Kröll, Paul Klee's Picture Titles. Eine Studie zur Beziehung von Bild und Sprache in der Kunst des zwanzigsten Jahrhunderts, dissertation, Bonn 1968, p. 76; Christian Rümelin, Paul Klee und August Macke im Spiegel zeitgenössischer Sammlungen, in: Die Ordnung der Farbe. Paul Klee, August Macke, and Their Painter Friends, exh. Cat. Kunstmuseum Bonn/Kunstmuseum Bern 2000/2001, p. 56, note 29. The "Daytime Haunting on the Main Square" presents itself in anecdotal cheerfulness - proof of the ease and sure hand with which Paul Klee was able to design fantastic-poetic sceneries. The "in-between world" as a place between reality and fantasy was of decisive importance for the artist. "The artistic scenery, the formal direction, the irony, the wit are means to reveal and at the same time to hide, to transform things into riddles that must be solved. Klee, starting from his own human observations, has found psychically laid out in-between worlds: they are those realms of experience which, like childhood or dream, memories or hopes, mediate between the belief in a unified substance of creation and the living, everyday human relationships and uncertainties." (Tilman Osterwold, Paul Klee. The Order of Things, Stuttgart 1975, p. 14f.). As in a small stage set, a scene is indicated, a chair and the curved lines of an awning locate it in front of a café. The friendly haunting of this place manifests itself in the concentric circular shapes, the largest of which seems to hover over the scene. The details are sketched with delicate pen strokes, but the main role is taken by the delicate coloring. A light gray dominates, accompanied by glazed blue tones, ocher and red. This gives the illusion of a passing summer rain, after which the local colors begin to shine all the more freshly. The charming sheet comes from the important graphic collection of Heinrich Stinnes (1867 - 1932). At the beginning of the 20th century, the brother of the great industrialist Hugo Stinnes had built up one of the most comprehensive and high-quality collections of contemporary works on paper. After Stinnes' collection was liquidated at various auctions, the work came into the possession of the Cologne entrepreneur Joseph Heymann (1887 - 1954), who was an important patron and collector of modern art in the 1920s/1930s. He managed to take his art collection with him when he emigrated to London in 1937 due to persecution.