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Year 1879 (MDCCCLXXIX) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar and a common year starting on Monday of the 12-day slower Julian calendar.

Events[link]

January–March[link]

• January – The current constitution of The State of California, USA is ratified.
• January 1 – The Specie Resumption Act takes effect. The Greenback is valued the same as gold for the first time since the Civil War.
• January 2 – Fred Spofforth claims the first Hat-trick in Test cricket.
• January 11 – The Anglo-Zulu War begins.
• January 22 – Anglo-Zulu War – Battle of Isandlwana: Zulu troops massacre British troops. At Rorke's Drift, outnumbered British soldiers drive the attackers away after hours of fighting.
• February 12 – At New York City's Madison Square Garden, the first artificial ice rink in North America opens.
• February 14 – Chilean troops disembark at Antofagasta, Chile, at the time a Bolivian port. The event marks the beginning of the War of the Pacific between Chile and the joint forces of Peru and Bolivia.
• February 15 – Women's rights: American President Rutherford B. Hayes signs a bill allowing female attorneys to argue cases before the Supreme Court of the United States.
• February 22 – In Utica, New York, Frank Woolworth opens the first of many 5 and 10-cent Woolworth stores.
• February 27 – The discovery of saccharin is announced.
• March 3 – The United States Geological Survey is created.
• March 12 – Anglo-Zulu War – Battle of Intombe: A British force over one-hundred strong is ambushed and destroyed by Zulu forces.
• March 13 – Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught and Strathearn, third son of Queen Victoria, marries Princess Louise Margaret of Prussia.

Albert Einstein

• March 14 – Albert Einstein – Theoretical physicist, philosopher and author who is widely regarded as one of the most influential scientists and intellectuals of all time was born.
• March 28 – Anglo-Zulu War – Battle of Hlobane: British forces suffer a defeat.
• March 29 – Anglo-Zulu War – Battle of Kambula: British forces defeat 20,000 Zulus.

April–June[link]

• May 2 – The Spanish Socialist Worker's Party is founded in Casa Labra Pub (city of Madrid) by the historical Spanish workers' leader Pablo Iglesias.
• May 14 – The first group of 463 Indian indentured labourers arrive in Fiji abroad the Leonidas.
• May 26 – Russia and the United Kingdom sign the Treaty of Gandamak, establishing an Afghan state.
• May 30 – New York City's Gilmore's Garden is renamed Madison Square Garden by William Henry Vanderbilt, and is opened to the public at 26th Street and Madison Avenue.
• June 1 – Napoléon Eugène, Prince Imperial (Napoléon IV), great-nephew of Napoléon Bonaparte, Bonapartist pretender to the throne, dies in Africa during the Anglo-Zulu War.
• June 14 – Sidney Faithorn Green, a priest in the Church of England, is tried and convicted for using Ritualist practices.

July–September[link]

• July 4 – Anglo-Zulu War: The Anglo-Zulu War effectively ends at the Battle of Ulundi.
• July 19 – Doc Holliday kills for the first time after a man shoots up Holliday's New Mexico saloon.
• August 21 – The Virgin Mary, along with St. Joseph and St. John the Evangelist, allegedly appears in Knock, Ireland to local people.
• September 8 – The Octagon fire claims 12 victims in Dunedin, New Zealand.
• September 25 – Deadwood, South Dakota fire: Two-thousand people left homeless. Three hundred buildings destroyed. Total loss of property is estimated at $3 million.
• September 29 – Meeker Massacre: Nathan Meeker and others are killed in an uprising at the White River Ute Indian Reservation in Colorado.

October–December[link]

• October 7 – The Dual Alliance is formed by Germany and Austria-Hungary.
• October 8 – The Naval Battle of Angamos was fought during the naval stage of the War of the Pacific.
• October 17 – Sunderland Association Football Club formed in the North East Of England.
• October 22 – Using a filament of carbonized thread, Thomas Edison tests the first practical electric light bulb (it lasts 13½ hours before burning out).
• December 28 – The Tay Bridge disaster – the central part of the Tay Rail Bridge in Dundee, Scotland collapses as a train passes over it, killing 75.
• December 30 – The Pirates of Penzance is first performed in Paignton, Devon, England.
• December 31 – Thomas Edison demonstrates incandescent lighting to the public for the first time in Menlo Park, New Jersey.

Date unknown[link]

• Ferdinand Cheval begins to build his Palais Idéal in France.
• The Fulham F.C. is founded.
• The Hall effect is discovered by Dr. Edwin Hall.
• Henrik Ibsen (while living in Italy) publishes his masterpiece, A Doll’s House.
• Henry George self-publishes his major work Progress and Poverty in September, published in 1880 by Appleton & Co.
• Simmons College of Kentucky, a historically black school, is founded.
• Somerville College, Oxford, is founded.
• The Stefan-Boltzmann law is discovered by Jozef Stefan.
• The Archaeological Institute of America (AIA) is formed.
• Wilhelm Wundt establishes the first psychology research laboratory at the University of Leipzig.
• Tetteh Quarshie first brings cocoa to Ghana from Equatorial Guinea.
• Colonel Ahmed Arabi forms the Egyptian Nationalist Party.
• Age of Gabriel ends and the Age of Michael starts according to Johannes Trithemius.

Births[link]

January–March[link]

• January 1 – E. M. Forster, English writer (d. 1970)
• January 3 – Grace Coolidge, First Lady of the United States (d. 1957)
• January 10 – Bobby Walker, Scottish footballer (d. 1930)
• January 12
  • Ray Harroun, American race car driver (d. 1968)
  • Calbraith Perry Rodgers, American pioneer aviator, made first transcontinental U.S. flight (d. 1912)
• January 13 – Melvin Jones, American founder of Lions Clubs International (d. 1961)
• January 18 – Tane Ikai, oldest undisputed Japanese person ever. She died on July 12 1995.
• January 20 – Ruth St. Denis, American dancer (d. 1968)
• January 28 – Francis Picabia, French painter and poet (d. 1953)
• February 22 – J. N. Brønsted, Danish chemist (d. 1947)
• February 26 – Frank Bridge, English composer (d. 1941)
• March 3 – József Klekl, Slovene writer and journalist (d. 1936)
• March 6 – William P. Cronan, 19th Naval Governor of Guam (d. 1929)
• March 8 – Otto Hahn, German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1968)
• March 14 – Albert Einstein, German-born physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1955)
• March 26 – Othmar Ammann, Swiss-born engineer (d. 1965)
• March 27
  • Edward Steichen, Luxembourgeois-born painter/photographer (d. 1973)
  • Sahan Dosova, she claimed to be 130 before she died (d. 2009)
• March 30 – Coen de Koning, Dutch speed skater (d. 1954)

April–June[link]

• April 9 – Thomas Meighan, American stage & screen actor (d. 1936)
• April 16 – Gala Galaction, Romanian writer (d. 1961)
• April 20
  • Paul Poiret, French couturier (d. 1944)
  • Robert Wilson Lynd, Northern Irish essayist and writer (d. 1949)
• April 26 – Owen Willans Richardson, British physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1959)
• April 29 – Sir Thomas Beecham, English conductor (d. 1961)
• May 6 – Bedřich Hrozny´, Czech orientalist and linguist (d. 1952)
• May 12 – George Landenberger, United States Navy Captain and the 23rd Governor of American Samoa (d. 1936)
• May 17 – Simon Petlyura, Ukrainian independence fighter (d. 1926)
• May 19
  • Nancy Astor, Viscountess Astor, American-born politician (d. 1964)
  • Viscount Waldorf Astor, British businessman and politician (d. 1952)
• May 22 – Alla Nazimova, Ukrainian-born stage and film actress (d. 1945)
• May 23 – Dezső Lauber, Hungarian sportsman (d. 1966)
• May 25 – Max Aitken, 1st Baron Beaverbrook, Canadian-born statesman and newspaper publisher (d. 1964)
• May 27 – Lucile Watson, stage & screen actress (d. 1962)
• June 3 – Raymond Pearl, American biologist (d. 1940)
• June 7 – Joan Voûte, Dutch astronomer (d. 1963)
• June 7 – Knud Rasmussen, Greenlander explorer (d. 1933)
• June 10 – Rafael Erich, Prime minister of Finland (d. 1946)

July–September[link]

• July 1 – Léon Jouhaux, French labour leader, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (d. 1954)
• July 5 – Wanda Landowska, Polish harpsichordist and musicologist (d. 1959)
• July 9 – Ottorino Respighi, Italian composer, musicologist, and conductor (d. 1936)
• July 10 – Charles P. Snyder, American admiral (d. 1964)
• July 15 – Joseph Campbell, Northern Irish poet and lyricist (d. 1944)
• July 22 – Janusz Korczak (pen-name of Henryk Goldszmit), Polish-Jewish children's author, pediatrician, and child pedagogist (born 1878 or 1879) (d. 1942)
• August 8 – Emiliano Zapata, Mexican revolutionary (d. 1919)
• August 13 – John Ireland, English composer and organist (d. 1962)
• August 15 – Ethel Barrymore, American stage & film actress (d. 1959)
• August 21 – Claude Grahame-White, British aviation pioneer (d. 1959)
• August 30 – Fritzi Scheff, actress and singer, (d. 1954)
• August 31 – Emperor Taishō, 123rd Emperor of Japan (d. 1926)
• September 2 – Ahn Jung-Keun, Eu-sa ('righteous hero' in Korean) and general, assassin of the Japanese politician Ito Hirobumi (d. 1910)
• September 6
  • Joseph Wirth, Chancellor of Germany (d. 1956)
  • Max Schreck, German actor (d. 1936)
• September 13 – Tsutomu Sakuma, Japanese, The sixth submarine corps coxswain (d. 1910)
• September 14 – Margaret Sanger, American birth control advocate (d. 1966)
• September 15 – Joseph Lyons, Premier of Tasmania and Prime Minister of Australia (d. 1939)
• September 20 – Victor Sjöström, Swedish film actor and director (d. 1960)
• September 25 – Lope K. Santos, Filipino writer, father of Philippine national language and grammar (d. 1963)
• September 27 – Hans Hahn, Austrian mathematician (d. 1934)

October–December[link]

• October 2 – Wallace Stevens, American poet (d. 1955)
• October 3 – Warner Oland, Swedish-born actor (d. 1938)
• October 5 – Francis Peyton Rous, American pathologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1970)
• October 9 – Max von Laue, German physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1960)
• October 21
  • Joseph Canteloube, French composer and singer (d. 1957)
  • Eugene Ely, American pioneer aviator; first shipboard takeoff and landing (d. 1911)
• October 29 – Franz von Papen, German Chancellor and diplomat (d. 1969)
• November 4 – Will Rogers, American humorist (d. 1935)
• November 7 – Leon Trotsky, Russian revolutionary (d. 1940)
• November 10
  • Vachel Lindsay, American poet (d. 1931)
  • Patrick Pearse, Irish patriot (d. 1916)
• November 15 – Lewis Stone, American stage & film actor Judge Hardy (d. 1953)
• November 26 – Charles W. Goddard, playwright and screenwriter (d. 1951)
• December 1 – Georgy Zhukov, Soviet general (d. 1974)
• December 4 – Nagai Kafu, Japanese writer (d. 1959)
• December 10 – Jouett Shouse, American politician (d. 1968)
  • Hanna Grönvall, Swedish politician and trade union worker.
• December 12 – Laura Hope Crews, American stage and film actress (Aunt PittyPat) (d. 1942)
• December 13 – Eleanor Robson Belmont aka Eleanor Robson, stage actress and philanthropist (d. 1979)
• December 18
  • Paul Klee, Swiss artist (d. 1940)
  • Joseph Stalin, Soviet dictator (d. 1953)
• December 20 – Earle Ovington, American aviator, flew first experimental airmail (d. 1936)
• December 25 – Grace George, American stage actress (d. 1961)
• December 27 – Sydney Greenstreet, British stage and screen actor (d. 1954)
• December 28 – Billy Mitchell, U.S. general and military aviation pioneer (d. 1936)
• December 29 – Florence Mary Taylor, Australia's first female architect (d. 1969)

Date unknown[link]

• Wesley Newcomb Hohfeld, American jurist (d. 1918)

Deaths[link]

January–June[link]

• January 8 – Baldomero Espartero, Prince of Vergara (b. 1793)
• January 24 – Heinrich Geißler, German Physicist (b. 1814)
• February 11 – Honoré Daumier, French caricaturist and painter (b. 1808)
• February 23 – Albrecht Graf von Roon, Prime Minister of Prussia (b. 1803)
• February 25 – Charles Peace, British criminal (executed) (b. 1832)
• March 1 – Joachim Heer, Swiss politician (b. 1825)
• March 2 – John Eberhard Faber, pencil manufacturer (b. 1822)
• March 10 – Prince Paul of Thurn and Taxis, German prince (b. 1843)
• March 27
  • Hércules Florence, Brazilian photographer (b. 1804)
  • Prince Waldemar of Prussia (b. 1868)
• March 30 – Thomas Couture, French painter and teacher (b. 1815)
• April 16 – Bernadette Soubirous, French Saint (b. 1844)
• April 30 – Sarah Josepha Hale, American author (b. 1788)
• May 5 – Félix Charles Douay, French general (b. 1816)
• June 1 – Napoleon Eugene, Prince Imperial, son of French Emperor Napoleon III (b. 1856)
• June 7 – William Tilbury Fox, English dermatologist (b. 1836)
• June 11 – William, Prince of Orange, Heir to Dutch throne (b. 1840)

July–December[link]

• July 17 – Maurycy Gottlieb, Ukrainian painter (b. 1856)
• July 19 – Louis Favre, French engineer (b. 1826)
• August 11 – George Willison Adams, Ohio abolitionist (b. 1799)
• August 30 – John Bell Hood, American Confederate general (b. 1831)
• September 30 – Francis Gillette, politician (b. 1807)
• October 8 – Miguel Grau Seminario, Peruvian Admiral during the War of the Pacific (b. 1834)
• October 31 – Joseph Hooker, American general (b. 1814)
• November 5 – James Clerk Maxwell, Scottish physicist (b. 1831)
• December 2 – Ferdinand Lindheimer, German-born botanist (b. 1801)
• December 7 – Jón Sigurðsson, campaigner for Icelandic independence (b. 1811)

References[link]

Paul Klee
Klee in 1911, photographed by Alexander Eliasberg
Born	18 December 1879 Münchenbuchsee bei Bern, Switzerland
Died	29 June 1940(1940-06-29) (aged 60) Muralto, Switzerland
Nationality	German/Swiss
Field	Painting
Training	Academy of Fine Arts, Munich
Movement	Expressionism, Bauhaus, Surrealism
Works	more than 10,000 paintings, drawings, and etchings, including Twittering Machine (1922), Fish Magic (1925), Viaducts Break Ranks (1937).

Paul Klee (German pronunciation: [ˈkleː]; 18 December 1879 – 29 June 1940) was born in Münchenbuchsee, Switzerland, and is considered both a German and a Swiss^[a] painter. His highly individual style was influenced by movements in art that included expressionism, cubism, and surrealism. He was, as well, a student of orientalism.^[1] Klee was a natural draftsman who experimented with and eventually mastered colour theory, and wrote extensively about it; his lectures Writings on Form and Design Theory (Schriften zur Form und Gestaltungslehre), published in English as the Paul Klee Notebooks, are considered so important for modern art that they are compared to the importance that Leonardo da Vinci's A Treatise on Painting had for Renaissance.^[2][3][4] He and his colleague, the Russian painter Wassily Kandinsky, both taught at the German Bauhaus school of art, design and architecture. His works reflect his dry humour and his sometimes childlike perspective, his personal moods and beliefs, and his musicality.

Early life and training[link]

Paul Klee was born as the second child of the German music teacher Hans Wilhelm Klee (1849–1940) and the Swiss singer Ida Marie Klee, née Frick (1855–1921). His sister Mathilde (died 6 December 1953) was born on 28 January 1876 in Walzenhausen. Their father came from Tann and studied at the Stuttgart Conservatory singing, piano, organ and violin, where he met his future wife Ida Frick. Until 1931 Hans Wilhelm Klee was active as a music teacher at the Bern State Seminary in Hofwil near Bern. Due to this circumstances, Klee was able to develop his music skills through his parental home; his parents backed and inspired him until his death.^[6] In 1880, his family moved to Bern, where they moved 17 years later after numerous changes of residence into a house at the Kirchenfeld district.^[7] From 1886 to 1890, Klee visited the primary school and received at 7 violin classes at the Municipal Music School. He was so talented on violin that, aged 11, he received an invitation to play as an exceptional member of the Bern Music Association.^[8]

My Room (German: Meine Bude), 1896. Pen and ink wash, 4¾ × 7½ inches. In the collection of the Klee Foundation, Bern, Switzerland

In his early years, following his parents’ wishes, he focused on becoming a musician; but he decided on the visual arts during his teen years, partly out of rebellion and partly because of a belief that modern music lacked meaning for him. He stated, "I didn’t find the idea of going in for music creatively particularly attractive in view of the decline in the history of musical achievement."^[9] As a musician, he played and felt emotionally bound to traditional works of the eighteenth and nineteenth century, but as an artist he craved the freedom to explore radical ideas and styles.^[9] At sixteen, Klee’s landscape drawings already show considerable skill.^[10]

Around 1897, he started his diary, which he kept until 1918, and which has provided scholars with valuable insight into his life and thinking.^[11] During his school years, he avidly drew in his school books, in particular drawing caricatures, and already demonstrating skill with line and volume.^[12] He barely passed his final exams at the "Gymnasium" of Bern, where he qualified in the Humanities. With his characteristic dry wit, he wrote, "After all, it’s rather difficult to achieve the exact minimum, and it involves risks."^[13] On his own time, in addition to his deep interests in music and art, Klee was a great reader of literature, and later a writer on art theory and aesthetics.^[14]

With his parents' reluctant permission, in 1898 he began studying art at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich with Heinrich Knirr and Franz von Stuck. He excelled at drawing but seemed to lack any natural color sense. He later recalled, "During the third winter I even realized that I probably would never learn to paint."^[13] During these times of youthful adventure, Klee spent much time in pubs and had affairs with lower class women and artists' models. He had an illegitimate son in 1900 who died several weeks after birth.^[15]

After receiving his Fine Arts degree,^{[verification needed]} Klee went to Italy from October 1901 to May 1902^[16] with friend Hermann Haller. They stayed in Rome, Florence, and Naples, and studied the master painters of past centuries.^[15] He exclaimed, "The Forum and the Vatican have spoken to me. Humanism wants to suffocate me."^[17] He responded to the colors of Italy, but sadly noted, "that a long struggle lies in store for me in this field of color."^[18] For Klee, color represented the optimism and nobility in art, and a hoped for relief from the pessimistic nature he expressed in his black-and-white grotesques and satires.^[18] Returning to Bern, he lived with his parents for several years, and took occasional art classes. By 1905, he was developing some experimental techniques, including drawing with a needle on a blackened pane of glass, resulting in fifty-seven works including his Portrait of My Father (1906).^[12] In the years 1903-5 he also completed a cycle of eleven zinc-plate etchings called Inventions, his first exhibited works, in which he illustrated several grotesque characters.^[15][19] He commented, "though I’m fairly satisfied with my etchings I can’t go on like this. I’m not a specialist."^[20] Klee was still dividing his time with music, playing the violin in an orchestra and writing concert and theater reviews.^[21]

Marriage and early years[link]

Marriage[link]

Flower Myth (1918), Watercolor on pastel foundation on fabric and newsprint mounted on board, Sprengel Museum, Hannover, Germany

Klee married Bavarian pianist Lily Stumpf in 1906 and they had one son named Felix Paul in the following year. They lived in a suburb of Munich, and while she gave piano lessons and occasional performances, he kept house and tended to his art work. His attempt to be a magazine illustrator failed.^[21] Klee’s art work progressed slowly for the next five years, partly from having to divide his time with domestic matters, and partly as he tried to find a new approach to his art. In 1910, he had his first solo exhibition in Bern, which then traveled to three Swiss cities.

Affiliation to the "Blaue Reiter", 1911[link]

In January 1911 Alfred Kubin met Klee in Munich encouraging him to illustrate Voltaires Candide. Around this time, Klee's graphical work saw an increase, and his early inclination towards the absurd and the sarcastic was well-received by Kubin. He did not only befriended Klee but he was also one of his first significant collectors.^[22] Klee met through Kubin the art critic Wilhelm Hausenstein in 1911, and was in the summer that year foundation member and manager of the Munich artists' union Sema.^[23] In autumn he made an acquaintance with August Macke and Wassily Kandinsky, and in winter he joined the editorial team of the almanach Der Blaue Reiter, founded by Franz Marc and Kandinsky. On meeting Kandinsky, Klee recorded, "I came to feel a deep trust in him. He is somebody, and has an exceptionally beautiful and lucid mind."^[24] Other members including Macke, Gabriele Münter and Marianne von Werefkin. Klee progressed in a few months of his assistance to one of the most important and independent members of the Blaue Reiter, but he did not yet fully integrated.^[25]

The release of the almanach was delayed for the benefit of an exhibition. The first Blaue Reiter exhibition took place from 18 December 1911 to 1 January 1912 in the Moderne Galerie Heinrich Thannhauser in Munich. Klee did not attend it, but in the second exhibition, occurred from 12 February to 18 March 1912 in the Galerie Goltz, 17 of his graphical works were showed. The name of this art exhibition was Schwarz-Weiß, as it only regarded graphic painting.^[26] Initially planned to be released in 1911, the release date of the Der Blau Reiter almanach by Kandinsky and Marc was delayed in May 1912, including the reproducted ink drawing Steinhauer by Klee. At the same time, Kandinsky published his art history writing Über das Geistige in der Kunst.^[27]

Participation on art exhibitions, 1912/1913[link]

The association opened his mind to modern theories of color. His travels to Paris in 1912 also exposed him to the ferment of Cubism and the pioneering examples of "pure painting", an early term for abstract art. The use of bold color by Robert Delaunay and Maurice de Vlaminck also inspired him.^[28] Rather than copy these artists, Klee began working out his own color experiments in pale watercolors and did some primitive landscapes, including In the Quarry (1913) and Houses near the Gravel Pit (1913), using blocks of colour with limited overlap.^[29] Klee acknowledged that "a long struggle lies in store for me in this field of color" in order to reach his "distant noble aim." Soon, he discovered "the style which connects drawing and the realm of color."^[18]

Trip to Tunis, 1914[link]

Klee’s artistic breakthrough came in 1914 when he briefly visited Tunisia with August Macke and Louis Moilliet and was impressed by the quality of the light there. He wrote, "Colour has taken possession of me; no longer do I have to chase after it, I know that it has hold of me forever... Colour and I are one. I am a painter."^[30] With that realization, faithfulness to nature fades in importance. Instead, Klee began to delve into the "cool romanticism of abstraction".^[30] In gaining a second artistic vocabulary, Klee added color to his abilities in draftsmanship, and in many works combined them successfully, as he did in one series he called "operatic paintings".^[31][32] One of the most literal examples of this new synthesis is The Bavarian Don Giovanni (1919).^[33]

After returning home, Klee painted his first pure abstract, In the Style of Kairouan (1914), composed of colored rectangles and a few circles.^[34] The colored rectangle became his basic building block, what some scholars associate with a musical note, which Klee combined with other colored blocks to create a color harmony analogous to a musical composition. His selection of a particular color palette emulates a musical key. Sometimes he uses complementary pairs of colors, and other times "dissonant" colors, again reflecting his connection with musicality.^[35]

Military career[link]

Paul Klee as a soldier, 1916

A few weeks later, World War I began. At first, Klee was somewhat detached from it, as he wrote ironically, "I have long had this war in me. That is why, inwardly, it is none of my concern." ^[36] Soon, however, it began to affect him. His friends Macke and Marc both died in battle. Venting his distress, he created several pen and ink lithographs on war themes including Death for the Idea (1915).^[37] He also continued with abstracts and semi-abstracts. In 1916, he joined the German war effort, but with behind the scenes maneuvering by his father, Klee was spared serving at the front and ended up painting camouflage on airplanes and working as a clerk.^[38]

He continued to paint during the entire war and managed to exhibit in several shows. By 1917, Klee’s work was selling well and art critics acclaimed him as the best of the new German artists.^[39] His Ab ovo (1917) is particularly noteworthy for its sophisticated technique. It employs watercolor on gauze and paper with a chalk ground, which produces a rich texture of triangular, circular, and crescent patterns.^[30] Demonstrating his range of exploration, mixing color and line, his Warning of the Ships (1918) is a colored drawing filled with symbolic images on a field of suppressed color.^[40]

Mature career[link]

Red Balloon, 1922, Oil on muslin primed with chalk, 31.8 x 31.1 cm. The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York

Miraculous Landing, or the "112!" (1920), Watercolor, ink, and monotype on paper. 23.6 × 31.8 cm. In the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC

In 1919, Klee applied for a teaching post at the Academy of Art in Düsseldorf. This attempt failed but he had a major success in securing a three-year contract (with a minimum annual income) with dealer Hans Goltz, whose influential gallery gave Klee major exposure, and some commercial success. A retrospective of over 300 works in 1920 was also notable.^[41]

Klee taught at the Bauhaus from January, 1921 to April, 1931.^[42] He was a "Form" master in the bookbinding, stained glass, and mural painting workshops and was provided with two studios.^[43] In 1922, Kandinsky joined the staff and resumed his friendship with Klee. Later that year the first Bauhaus exhibition and festival was held, for which Klee created several of the advertising materials.^[44] Klee welcomed that there were many conflicting theories and opinions within the Bauhaus: "I also approve of these forces competing one with the other if the result is achievement."^[45]

Klee was also a member of Die Blaue Vier (The Blue Four), with Kandinsky, Feininger, and Jawlensky; formed in 1923, they lectured and exhibited together in the USA in 1925. That same year, Klee had his first exhibits in Paris, and he became a hit with the French Surrealists.^[46] Klee visited Egypt in 1928, which impressed him less than Tunisia. In 1929, the first major monograph on Klee’s work was published, written by Will Grohmann.^[47]

Klee also taught at the Düsseldorf Academy from 1931 to 1933, and was singled out by a Nazi newspaper, "Then that great fellow Klee comes onto the scene, already famed as a Bauhaus teacher in Dessau. He tells everyone he’s a thoroughbred Arab, but he’s a typical Galician Jew."^[48] His home was searched by the Gestapo and he was fired from his job.^[4][49] His self-portrait Struck from the List (1933) commemorates the sad occasion.^[48] In 1933-4, Klee had shows in London and Paris, and finally met Picasso, whom he greatly admired.^[50] The Klee family emigrated to Switzerland in late 1933.^[50]

Klee was at the peak of his creative output. His Ad Parnassum (1932) is considered his masterpiece and the best example of his pointillist style; it is also one of his largest, most finely worked paintings.^[51][52] He produced nearly 500 works in 1933 during his last year in Germany.^[53] However, in 1933, Klee began experiencing the symptoms of what was diagnosed as scleroderma after his death. The progression of his fatal disease, which made swallowing very difficult, can be followed through the art he created in his last years. His output in 1936 was only 25 pictures. In the later 1930s, his health recovered somewhat and he was encouraged by a visit from Kandinsky and Picasso.^[54] Klee’s simpler and larger designs enabled him to keep up his output in his final years, and in 1939 he created over 1,200 works, a career high for one year.^[55] He used heavier lines and mainly geometric forms with fewer but larger blocks of color. His varied color palettes, some with bright colors and others sober, perhaps reflected his alternating moods of optimism and pessimism.^[56] Back in Germany in 1937, seventeen of Klee’s pictures were included in an exhibition of "Degenerate art" and 102 of his works in public collections were seized by the Nazis.^[57]

Death and Fire, 1940

Death[link]

Klee suffered from a wasting disease, scleroderma, toward the end of his life, enduring pain that seems to be reflected in his last works of art. One of his last paintings, "Death and Fire", features a skull in the center with the German word for death, "Tod", appearing in the face. He died in Muralto, Locarno, Switzerland, on 29 June 1940 without having obtained Swiss citizenship, despite his birth in that country. His art work was considered too revolutionary, even degenerate, by the Swiss authorities, but eventually they accepted his request six days after his death.^[58] His legacy comprises about 9,000 works of art.^[18] The words on his tombstone, Klee's credo, placed there by his son Felix, say, "I cannot be grasped in the here and now, For my dwelling place is as much among the dead, As the yet unborn, Slightly closer to the heart of creation than usual, But still not close enough."^[59] He was buried at Schosshaldenfriedhof, Bern, Switzerland.

Style and methods[link]

Tale à la Hoffmann (1921), Watercolor, ink, and pencil on paper. 31.1 × 24.1 cm. In the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC

Klee has been variously associated with Expressionism, Cubism, Futurism, Surrealism, and Abstraction, but his pictures are difficult to classify. He generally worked in isolation from his peers, and interpreted new art trends in his own way. He was inventive in his methods and technique. Klee worked in many different media—oil paint, watercolor, ink, pastel, etching, and others. He often combined them into one work. He used canvas, burlap, muslin, linen, gauze, cardboard, metal foils, fabric, wallpaper, and newsprint.^[60] Klee employed spray paint, knife application, stamping, glazing, and impasto, and mixed media such as oil with watercolor, water color with pen and India ink, and oil with tempera.^[61]

He was a natural draftsman, and through long experimentation developed a mastery of color and tonality. Many of his works combine these skills. He uses a great variety of color palettes from nearly monochromatic to highly polychromatic. His works often have a fragile child-like quality to them and are usually on a small scale. He often used geometric forms as well as letters, numbers, and arrows, and combined them with figures of animals and people. Some works were completely abstract. Many of his works and their titles reflect his dry humor and varying moods; some express political convictions. They frequently allude to poetry, music and dreams and sometimes include words or musical notation. The later works are distinguished by spidery hieroglyph-like symbols. Rainer Maria Rilke wrote about Klee in 1921, "Even if you hadn’t told me he plays the violin, I would have guessed that on many occasions his drawings were transcriptions of music."^[14]

Pamela Kort observed: "Klee's 1933 drawings present their beholder with an unparalleled opportunity to glimpse a central aspect of his aesthetics that has remained largely unappreciated: his lifelong concern with the possibilities of parody and wit. Herein lies their real significance, particularly for an audience unaware that Klee's art has political dimensions."^[62]

Legacy[link]

Twittering Machine, 1922, Museum of Modern Art, New York

As Klee learned to manipulate color with great skill and passion, he became an effective teacher of color mixing and color theory to students at the Bauhaus. This progression in itself is of great interest because his views on color would ultimately allow him to write about it from a unique viewpoint among his contemporaries.

Klee influenced the work of other noted artists of the early 20th century including Belgian printmaker Rene Carcan.

Composer Gunther Schuller immortalized seven works of Klee's in his Seven Studies on Themes of Paul Klee. The studies are based on a range of works, including Alter Klang [Antique Harmonies], Abstraktes Terzett [Abstract Trio], Little Blue Devil, Twittering Machine, Arab Village, Ein unheimlicher Moment [An Eerie Moment], and Pastorale. The German Ensemble Sortisatio together with the Swiss Groupe Lacroix worked on the project "8 Pieces on Paul Klee", based on the work of the painter. Another Klee-inspired work is Wingate's Second Symphony, subtitled Kleetüden; Variationen für Orchester nach Paul Klee (Variations for Orchestra after Paul Klee) which consists of 27 tone paintings in homage to Klee. The Spanish composer Benet Casablancas's symphonic work Alter Klang. Impromptu for orchestra after Klee, based on Klee's painting of the same title, was commissioned by Orquesta Nacional de España, which prémièred it in 2007 under the baton of Josep Pons.^[63] This is not the only piece by Casablancas that is inspired by Klee; in 2007 he composed a chamber cantata Retablo sobre textos de Paul Klee, for soprano, mezzosoprano and piano, commissioned by Fundación Canal in Madrid. Well into 2011, more than 800 pieces of music, in virtually all genres, are known to have been inspired by Klee's artwork, and sometimes by his words. This is far more music than has been inspired by any other artist.^{[citation needed]}

One of Klee's paintings, Angelus Novus, was the object of an interpretive text by German philosopher and literary critic Walter Benjamin, who purchased the painting in 1921. In his "Theses on the Philosophy of History," Benjamin suggests that the angel depicted in the painting might be seen as representing the angel of history.

Zentrum Paul Klee in Bern, Switzerland, designed by Renzo Piano

In 1968, a jazz group called The National Gallery featuring composer Chuck Mangione released the album Performing Musical Interpretations of the Paintings of Paul Klee.^[64]

In 1995 Greek experimental filmmaker, Kostas Sfikas, created a film based entirely on Paul Klee's paintings. The film is entitled "Paul Klee's Prophetic Bird of Sorrows", and draws its title from Klee's Landscape with Yellow Birds. It was made using portions and cutouts from Paul Klee's paintings.^[65]

Today, a painting by Klee can sell for as much as $7.5 million.

A museum dedicated to Klee was built in Bern, Switzerland, by the Italian architect Renzo Piano. Zentrum Paul Klee opened in June 2005 and houses a collection of about 4,000 works by Paul Klee. Another substantial collection of Klee's works is owned by chemist and playwright Carl Djerassi and displayed at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

The 2005 bottling of Kenwood Vineyards "Artist Series" Cabernet Sauvignon reproduces Klee's "Highway and Byways" (1929) on the label.

Gallery[link]

• 

  Crystal Gradation, 1921

• 

  Around the Fish, 1926

• 

  Fire in the Evening, 1929

• 

  Highways and Byways, 1929

• 

  Fortress and Sun, 1932

• 

  Sign in Yellow, 1935

• 

  After the Flood, 1936

• 

  Untitled (The Prisoner), 1940

Notes and sources[link]

Footnotes[link]

• ^a Paul Klee's father was a German citizen; his mother was Swiss. Swiss law determined citizenship along paternal lines, and thus Paul inherited his father's German citizenship. He served in the German army during World War I. However, Klee grew up in Berne, Switzerland, and returned there often, even before his final emigration from Germany in 1933. He died before his application for Swiss citizenship was processed.^[66][67]

Citations[link]

References[link]

• Jardi, Enric (1991) Paul Klee, Rizzoli Intl Pubns, ISBN 0-8478-1343-6
• Kagan, Andrew (1993) Paul Klee at the Guggenheim Museum (exhibition catalogue) [1] Introduction by Lisa Dennison, essay by Andrew Kagan. 208 pages. English and Spanish editions. 1993, ISBN 978-0-89207-106-7
• Partsch, Susanna (2007) (in German). Klee (reissue). Cologne: Benedikt Taschen. ISBN 978-3-8228-6361-9. 
• Rudloff, Diether (1982) (in German). Unvollendete Schöpfung: Künstler im zwanzigsten Jahrhundert. ISBN 978-3-87838-368-0. 
• Baumgartner, Michael; Klingsöhr-Leroy, Cathrin; Schneider, Katja (2010) (in German). Franz Marc, Paul Klee: Dialog in Bildern (1st ed.). Wädenswil: Nimbus Kunst und Bücher. ISBN 978-3-907142-50-9. 
• Giedion-Welcker, Carola (in German). Klee. Reinbek: Rowohlt. ISBN 978-3-499-50052-7. 
• Glaesemer, Jürgen; Kersten, Wolfgang; Traffelet, Ursula (1996) (in German). Paul Klee: Leben und Werk. Ostfildern: Hatje Cantz. ISBN 978-3-7757-0241-6. 
• Rümelin, Christian (2004). Paul Klee: Leben und Werk. Munich: C. H. Beck. ISBN 3-406-52190-8. 

Books, essays and lectures by Paul Klee[link]

• 1922 Beiträge zur bildnerischen Formlehre ('Contributions to a pictorial theory of form', part of his 1921-2 lectures at the Bauhaus)
• 1923 Wege des Naturstudiums ('Ways of Studying Nature'), 4 pages. Published in the catalogue for the Erste Bauhaus Ausstellung (First Bauhaus Exhibition) in Summer 1923. Also published in Paul Klee Notebooks vol 1.
• 1924 Über moderne Kunst ('On Modern Art'), lecture held at Paul Klee's exhibition at the Kunstverein in Jena on 26 January 1924
• 1924 Pädagogisches Skizzenbuch ('Pedagogical Sketchbook')
• 1949 Documente und Bilder aus den Jahren 1896–1930, ('Documents and images from the years 1896–1930'), Berne, Benteli
• 1956 Graphik, ('Graphics'), Berne, Klipstein & Kornfeld
• 1956 Schriften zur Form und Gestaltungslehre ('Writings on form and design theory') edited by Jürg Spiller (English edition: 'Paul Klee Notebooks')
  • 1956 Band I: Das bildnerische Denken., ('Volume I: the creative thinking'). 572 pages review. (English translation from German by Ralph Manheim: 'The thinking eye')
  • 1964 Band 2: Unendliche Naturgeschichte ('Volume 2: Infinite Natural History') (English translation from German by Heinz Norden: 'The Nature of Nature')
• 1964 The Diaries of Paul Klee 1898–1918 ed. Felix Klee Berkley, University of California
• 1976 Schriften, Rezensionen und Aufsätze edited by Ch. Geelhaar, Köln,
• 1960 Gedichte, poems, edited by Felix Klee
• 1962 Some poems by Paul Klee ed Anselm Hollo. London

Further reading[link]

• Paul Klee: Catalogue Raisonné. 9 vols. Edited by the Paul Klee Foundation, Museum of Fine Arts, Berne. New York: Thames & Hudson, 1998–2004.
• Paul Klee: 1933 published by Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Munich, Helmut Friedel. Contains essays in German by Pamela Kort, Osamu Okuda, and Otto Karl Werckmeister.
• Reto Sorg und Osamu Okuda: Die satirische Muse – Hans Bloesch, Paul Klee und das Editionsprojekt Der Musterbürger. ZIP Zürich 2005 (Klee-Studien; 2), ISBN 3-909252-07-9
• Kort, Pamela (2004-10-30). Comic Grotesque: Wit And Mockery In German Art, 1870–1940. PRESTEL. p. 208. ISBN 978-3-7913-3195-9. http://www.frontlist.com/detail/3791331957. 
• Otto Karl Werckmeister: The Making of Paul Klee's Career, 1914–1920. University of Chicago Press, 343 pages, 125 halftones, 1984, 1989.
• Marcel Franciscono: Paul Klee: His Work and Thought. University Of Chicago Press, 406 pages, 1991, ISBN 0-226-25990-0.
• Wilhelm Hausenstein (1921) Kairuan oder eine Geschichte vom Maler Klee und von der Kunst dieses Zeitalters ('Kairuan or a History of the Artist Klee and the Art of this Age')

Musical interpretations[link]

• Groupe Lacroix: 8 Pieces on Paul Klee Ensemble Sortisatio (2003) (performer), Creative Works Records, CW 1035
• Sándor Veress: Hommage à Paul Klee (1951), phantasy for two pianos and strings
• Peter Maxwell Davies Five Klee-Pictures (1962), orchestral
• Edison Denisov: Drei Bilder von Paul Klee (Three Pictures of Paul Klee) (1985), for six players (Diana im Herbstwind − Senecio – Kind auf der Freitreppe)
• Walter Steffens: Vier Aquarelle nach Paul Klee (Four Watercolour Pictures to Paul Klee) (1991), op. 63, for recorder(s)
• Tan Dun: Death and Fire (1992), Dialogue with Paul Klee, orchestral
• Jean-Luc Darbellay: Ein Garten für Orpheus (A Garden for Orpheus) (1996), for six instruments
• Jörg-Peter Mittmann: Bilder des Südens (Pictures of the South) (1997), for seven players (Garten im Orient – Lagunenstadt – Häuser am Meer)
• Michael Denhoff: Haupt- und Nebenwege (Main and Sideways) (1998), for strings and piano
• Iris Szeghy: Ad parnassum (2005), for strings

External links[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Paul Klee

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Paul Klee

• Zentrum Paul Klee - The Paul Klee museum in Bern
• Current exhibitions and connection to galeries at Artfacts.Net
• Paul Klee – Swissinfo web special
• Paul Klee at the Museum of Modern Art
• Paul Klee at The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA)
• Klee's Mandalas
• Gallery of Klee's artwork