THE PERSONAL COLLECTION OF BARBARA LAMBRECHT, SOLD TO BENEFIT THE RUBENS PRIZE COLLECTION IN THE MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART IN SIEGEN Christie’s is honoured to offer the following selection of works from the personal collection of the esteemed philanthropist and patron of the arts, Barbara Lambrecht. Assembled over the course of nearly four decades, Ms Lambrecht’s collection features works by a diverse range of artists, from early compositions by the great painters of Impressionism, to the refined techniques of the Pointillists, and the free, expressionist colours of the Fauves. In this way, the collection offers an intriguing insight into one of the most dynamic and exciting periods of the European artistic avant-garde. Ms Lambrecht’s collecting journey began in the 1970s, when an early interest in Impressionism encouraged her to purchase paintings by Eugène Boudin, Raoul Dufy and Berthe Morisot. From here, her treasured collection has grown and evolved to encompass works by some of the most influential artists of the late Nineteenth and early Twentieth Centuries, including Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso and Paul Klee. This highly personal collection, shaped by Ms Lambrecht’s discerning vision and keen knowledge of art history, has filled the walls of the collector’s home for the past forty years. Considered together, the works reveal a series of intriguing connections to one another, their similarities and differences causing a dynamic dialogue to develop between each of the individual works in the collection. This is evident, for example, when Dufy’s portrayal of the northern coast of France is considered alongside Boudin’s painting of the same subject, or the contrasting painterly techniques of Monet’s loose, spontaneous compositions are observed beside Kees van Dongen’s highly saturated, impastoed areas of colour. One of the most striking features of the collection is the way in which the collection focuses on the pivotal periods in each artist’s career, often highlighting on a moment of transition as they begin to explore new, ground breaking techniques, subject matter or styles. Ms Lambrecht’s dedication to collecting has been paralleled by a prodigious journey in cultural philanthropy and patronage, as her passion for the arts has driven her to support a number of institutions in her native Siegen. Through her generous support, these bodies have become leaders in their respective fields, from the Philharmonic Orchestra Südwestfalen, to the city’s Apollo Theatre. Amongst her most remarkable and enduring charitable projects is her commitment to the Museum of Contemporary Art, Siegen, and her promotion of the Peter Paul Rubens Prize. Founded in 1955, the same year as the documenta in Kassel, this highly acclaimed international award is presented every five years to a contemporary artist living in Europe, to honour his or her lifetime achievements in art. Presented in remembrance of Peter Paul Rubens, who was born in Siegen, previous recipients include Giorgio Morandi, Francis Bacon, Antoni Tápies, Cy Twombly, Sigmar Polke, Lucian Freud, Maria Lassnig and Bridget Riley. To support the award, Ms Lambrecht founded the Rubens Prize Collection, acquiring comprehensive and exemplary groups of important paintings, sculptures and graphic pieces by each of the award’s former laureates, and then placing them on permanent loan to the Museum. Conceptually, the collection has been carefully curated so as to include works from each artist’s various creative phases, and continues to grow as it gathers examples from each new recipient of the prize. Creating an impressive survey of twentieth- and early twenty-first-century European art, from the quiet still-lifes of Morandi, and Riley’s iconic explorations of line and colour, to Bacon's emotionally charged figurative paintings and Maria Lassnig’s self-exploration of the human body, the Rubens Prize Collection offers visitors to the Museum of Contemporary Art in Siegen an in-depth look into the work of the acclaimed artists honoured by the city. With the sale of this outstanding group of impressionist and early modernist works, Ms Lambrecht plans to ensure the continued growth and evolution of the Rubens Prize Collection, and to secure its future for the enjoyment of subsequent generations in Siegen and throughout Europe.

Paul Klee (1879-1940)

Fragment Nr. 67 (Engel)

Details

Paul Klee (1879-1940)
Fragment Nr. 67 (Engel)
signed 'Klee' (lower centre); dated, numbered and inscribed 'S.Cl 1930 G.10. Fragment Nr.67' (on the artist's mount)
gouache and watercolour on canvas laid down on the artist's mount
canvas: 16 x 10 3/8 in. (41 x 26.5 cm.)
artist's mount: 19 3/4 x 13 5/8 in. (50.5 x 34.8 cm.)
Executed in 1930

Provenance

(possibly) Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler, Paris.
Estate of the artist, until 1946.
The Paul Klee Foundation, Bern, by 1950.
Werner Allenbach, Bern, until 1959.
Berggruen & Cie, Paris.
M. Knoedler & Co., Inc., Paris (no. A7339), acquired from the above in October 1959.
Georges Bernier, Paris, acquired from the above in November 1961.
Atelier Saint Honoré, Paris.
Acquired from the above by the present owner in 1996.

Literature

F. Klee, Paul Klee, Leben und Werk in Dokumenten, ausgewählt aus den nachgelassenen Aufzeichnungen und den unveröffentlichten Briefen, Zurich, 1960, p. 264.
M. Huggler, Paul Klee, Die Malerei als Blick in den Kosmos, Frauenfeld, 1969, p. 142.
The Paul Klee Foundation, (ed.), Paul Klee, Catalogue raisonné, vol. 5, 1927-1930, Bern, 2001, no. 5359, p. 517 (illustrated pp. 455 & 517).
A. Fonti, Paul Klee, Angeli 1913-1940, Milan, 2005, p. 66 (illustrated).
H. Zilch, Die Engelsdarstellungen von Paul Klee, Verwendung und Verfremdung eines religiösen Sujets, Bamberg, 2009, pp. 180, 188 & 225 (illustrated).
B. Friedewald, Die Engel von Paul Klee, Cologne, 2011, p. 55 (illustrated).
Exh. cat., Paul Klee, Die Engel, Ostfildern, 2012, pp. 24 & 142 (illustrated).
Exh. cat., Paul Klee, Sonderklasse, unverkäuflich, Cologne, 2015, no. 247, p. 429 (illustrated).

Exhibited

Bern, Zentrum Paul Klee, Paul Klee, Überall Theater, June - October 2007, p. 270 (illustrated p. 145).

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Lot Essay

Klee inscribed this drawing 'S.Cl' categorising it as one of his greatest works. He had defined a system with eight price categories and from 1925 an additional "Sonderklasse" (a special class of their own) for works of the highest quality, which was generally regarded as never to be sold.

In Fragment Nr. 67 (Engel), Klee depicts a freckled angel with a heart-shaped mouth, composed of two conic shapes, standing on two delicate legs. The angel is delicately painted on canvas as if to support the idea of its fragility. In this appearance that the artist gave it, it is delicate and melancholic and at the same time full of humour and cheerfulness. Klee described his angels as beings still 'in the antechamber of angeldom' (L. Lang (ed.), Paul Klee, Die Zwitschermaschine und andere Grotesken, Berlin (East), 1982, p. 206). They are messengers from a spiritual sphere and appeared to the artist regularly. Klee developed the motif in 1915 and continued to return to it until 1940 in a number of popular and poetic works which have been the subject of international exhibitions and monographs. In 1920 he created the work Angelus Novus which was purchased by the philosopher and cultural critic Walter Benjamin who also dedicated a number of his writings to Fragment Nr. 67. Up to the present day, musicians, artists and film makers refer to Klee’s angels, including Wim Winders in his film Der Himmel über Berlin (Wings of Desire).

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