Sale: 606 / Evening Sale, June 12. 2026 in Munich → Lot 126000231
Raumbeispiel
126000231
Paul Klee
Kleines Bühnenbild, 1916.
Watercolor and pen on paper, laid on cardboard
Estimate:
€ 120,000 - 150,000
$ 138,000 - 172,500
Information on buyer's premium, taxation and resale right compensation will be available four weeks before the auction.
126000231
Paul Klee
Kleines Bühnenbild, 1916.
Watercolor and pen on paper, laid on cardboard
Estimate:
€ 120,000 - 150,000
$ 138,000 - 172,500
Information on buyer's premium, taxation and resale right compensation will be available four weeks before the auction.
Paul Klee
1879 - 1940
Kleines Bühnenbild. 1916.
Watercolor and pen on paper, laid on cardboard.
Signed in the lower right. Dated and inscribed "11" in the lower left of the cardboard. 10.2 x 13.9 cm (4 x 5.4 in). Karton: 15,2 x 17,8 cm (5,9 x 7 in).
[AW].
• Paul Klee opens the curtain to an exceptionally atmospheric theater stage.
• Characterized by an unusual combination of colors and a flat style.
• In 1916, Paul Klee was drafted into the army and, at the same time, held his first solo exhibition of abstract watercolors at Herwarth Walden’s Galerie Der Sturm.
• First exhibited as early as the 1920s.
• Impressive provenance: Once owned by the prominent New York art dealers Lucien Goldschmidt and Serge Sabarsky.
• Watercolors from 1916 are at, among others, the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Ernst and Hildy Beyeler Collection, Basel; and the Paul Klee Foundation, Kunstmuseum Bern.
PROVENANCE: Lucien Goldschmidt Collection, New York (with the gallery label on the back of the frame).
Serge Sabarsky, Inc. Collection, New York.
Private collection, Northern Germany.
EXHIBITION: Paul Klee. *Der Ararat*, Second Special Issue, 60th Exhibition, Galerie Neue Kunst Hans Goltz, Munich, May 17–June 25, 1920, Cat. No. 115.
Paul Klee, Kunst-Verein zu Jena, July 11–August 1, 1920, cat. no. 47 (listed as a watercolor without a title).
Paul Klee. Adolf Erbslöh. Stettiner Künstler, Pommereder Verein für Kunst und Kunstgewerbe, Stetin, November 1922, cat. no. 20.
Paul Klee in Jena 1924, Stadtmuseum Göhre, Jena, March 14–April 25, 1999, Cat. No. 1916/11, p. 135 (no illustration).
LITERATURE: Paul Klee Foundation, Kunstmuseum Bern (eds.), Paul Klee. Catalogue raisonnée. 1883–1940, 9 vols., Bern 1998–2003, vol. 2, CR no. 1608 (illustrated on p. 331).
- -
Christie’s, New York, Nov. 20, 1980, lot 340 (illustrated in color).
Sotheby’s, London, July 1, 1981, lot 345 (illustrated in color).
Calliope Rigopoulou, La scène chez Paul Klee, PhD thesis, Paris 1983, cat. no. 146 (illustrated)
Dorothea Richter, Unendliches Spiel der Poesie. Romantische Aspekte in der Bildgestaltung Paul Klees, Weimar 2004, pp. 67ff. (illustrated, fig. 19)
Osamu Okuda, Bild als Bühne. Die theatralische Raumgestaltung bei Paul Klee, in: Exhibition catalog, Zentrum Paul Klee, Bern 2004, pp. 243–250, p. 246 (illustrated).
1879 - 1940
Kleines Bühnenbild. 1916.
Watercolor and pen on paper, laid on cardboard.
Signed in the lower right. Dated and inscribed "11" in the lower left of the cardboard. 10.2 x 13.9 cm (4 x 5.4 in). Karton: 15,2 x 17,8 cm (5,9 x 7 in).
[AW].
• Paul Klee opens the curtain to an exceptionally atmospheric theater stage.
• Characterized by an unusual combination of colors and a flat style.
• In 1916, Paul Klee was drafted into the army and, at the same time, held his first solo exhibition of abstract watercolors at Herwarth Walden’s Galerie Der Sturm.
• First exhibited as early as the 1920s.
• Impressive provenance: Once owned by the prominent New York art dealers Lucien Goldschmidt and Serge Sabarsky.
• Watercolors from 1916 are at, among others, the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Ernst and Hildy Beyeler Collection, Basel; and the Paul Klee Foundation, Kunstmuseum Bern.
PROVENANCE: Lucien Goldschmidt Collection, New York (with the gallery label on the back of the frame).
Serge Sabarsky, Inc. Collection, New York.
Private collection, Northern Germany.
EXHIBITION: Paul Klee. *Der Ararat*, Second Special Issue, 60th Exhibition, Galerie Neue Kunst Hans Goltz, Munich, May 17–June 25, 1920, Cat. No. 115.
Paul Klee, Kunst-Verein zu Jena, July 11–August 1, 1920, cat. no. 47 (listed as a watercolor without a title).
Paul Klee. Adolf Erbslöh. Stettiner Künstler, Pommereder Verein für Kunst und Kunstgewerbe, Stetin, November 1922, cat. no. 20.
Paul Klee in Jena 1924, Stadtmuseum Göhre, Jena, March 14–April 25, 1999, Cat. No. 1916/11, p. 135 (no illustration).
LITERATURE: Paul Klee Foundation, Kunstmuseum Bern (eds.), Paul Klee. Catalogue raisonnée. 1883–1940, 9 vols., Bern 1998–2003, vol. 2, CR no. 1608 (illustrated on p. 331).
- -
Christie’s, New York, Nov. 20, 1980, lot 340 (illustrated in color).
Sotheby’s, London, July 1, 1981, lot 345 (illustrated in color).
Calliope Rigopoulou, La scène chez Paul Klee, PhD thesis, Paris 1983, cat. no. 146 (illustrated)
Dorothea Richter, Unendliches Spiel der Poesie. Romantische Aspekte in der Bildgestaltung Paul Klees, Weimar 2004, pp. 67ff. (illustrated, fig. 19)
Osamu Okuda, Bild als Bühne. Die theatralische Raumgestaltung bei Paul Klee, in: Exhibition catalog, Zentrum Paul Klee, Bern 2004, pp. 243–250, p. 246 (illustrated).
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