7175 - Klein, César

Klein, César Surreal Landscape Gouache and opaque white on gray vellum. 1946. 29.8 x 21.7 cm (mat cutout). Signed “CESAR KLEIN” and dated in dark brown with a brush in the lower right corner. César Klein was a co-founder of the Neue Sezession in 1910 and of the November Group in Berlin in 1918. In the 1920s, he created stage designs for, among others, the Theater am Kurfürstendamm, the Kroll Opera, and the Renaissance Theater. He lost the professorship he had held since 1919 at the Training Institute of the Museum of Decorative Arts in Berlin in 1937, after having been banned from painting as early as 1933 during the Nazi era and defamed as “degenerate.” In our surreal landscape view, various geometric forms appear combined like pieces of a puzzle, rendered with fine brushstrokes—dotted, hatched, or stippled. We thank Dr. Matthias Esche of the Freundeskreis Cesar Klein e.V., Mölln, for his helpful comments dated September 28, 2026. Provenance: Private collection, Berlin - Please request condition reports for the lots, as the condition is usually not specified in the catalog. - Please ask for condition reports for individual lots, as the condition is usually not mentioned in the catalog.