Drei Köpfe. Wohl 1930/40s.
Gouache.
With double estate stamp on verso, one signed by Paula Klein. On firm paper. 36,8 x 46,3 cm (14,4 x 18,2 in), the full sheet.

We are grateful to Dr. Ruth Irmgard Dalinghaus, Oldenburg, for her kind support in cataloging this lot.

Cesar Klein, a co-founder of the New Secession in Berlin and the Novembergroup, was born in Hamburg on 14 September, 1876. As of 1894 he studied at the Hamburg School of Arts and Craft, afterwards at the Düsseldorf Academy and finally at the 'Unterrichtsanstalt' at the Berlin Museum of Arts and Crafts. Klein's work, which developed from Impressionism over an own expressionist period all the way to Cubism, was defamed as 'degenerate' by the National Socialists. An occupational ban was imposed in 1937, so he had to give up his teaching activity in Berlin and henceforth lived in isolation in Pansdorf near Lübeck. Cesar Klein, whose work from after 1945 was shown in many exhibitions, was the first German artist on display in London after WWII. This work delivers proof of Klein's mastery in handling color and form: With great poise he combines figurative and abstract elements and composes a carpet of lucent colors, from which the three scheme-like heads emerge. [KH].