Luftkampf

Details

Paul Klee (1879-1940)
Luftkampf
signed 'Klee' (upper left); dated, numbered and titled '1919/257 Luftkampf' (on the artist's mount)
pencil on paper laid down on the artist's mount
Image: 11 x 8¾ in. (28 x 22 cm.)
Artist's mount: 15¾ x 14 3/8 in. (40 x 34 cm.)
Drawn in 1919

Provenance

Anonymous sale, Kunstkabinett, Stuttgart, 3-4 May 1961, lot 241.
Anonymous sale, Sotheby's, London, 22 October 1997, lot 27.
Acquired at the above sale by the present owner.

Literature

R. Verdi, Klee and Nature, London, 1984 (illustrated p. 51).
Paul Klee Foundation (ed.), Paul Klee, Catalogue raisonné, vol. 3, 1919-1922, Bern, 1999, no. 2321 (illustrated p. 145).

Exhibited

Bonn, Landesmuseum, Paul Klee im Rheinland, March - June 2004, no. 10 (illustrated p. 71).

Special Notice

No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 17.5% will be added to the buyer's premium, which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis.

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Lot Essay

During the First World War, Paul Klee served first in the Reserve Flying Division in Schleissheim and later at the Royal Bavarian Flying School in Gersthofen. At the flying school he was able to avoid the front and could paint when he was off-duty, turning to aeroplanes and 'Luftkmpfe', or aerial battles, for inspiration, also in the year after the war ended when he fled the political chaos of Germany for Switzerland.

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