Federpflanze - Kunstsammlung NRW / Online-Sammlung

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Foto: Achim Kukulies, Düsseldorf

Information

Artist

Paul Klee

1879
Münchenbuchsee bei Bern, Schweiz

1940
Locarno-Muralto, Schweiz

Work data

Material/Technique

Oil and ink on linen, mounted on cardboard, bordered with painted paper strips (Reconstructed frame 2024)

Dimensions

Image: 41,5 × 31,5 cm
Frame: 49,9 × 39,8 × 6,4 cm

Signature

Bez. u.r.: "Klee 1919. 180", verso a.d. Klebezettel: "1919. 180 Federpflanze Klee"

Accession Number

0005

Catalogue Raisonné

Cat. Rais. Nr. 2244

Acquisition year

1960

Provenance

The painting “Federpflanze” by Paul Klee remained the property of the artist from the year of its creation in 1919 until April 1920. He presumably gave it to his art dealer Hans Goltz on consignment as early as 1919. Goltz made it available to Galerie Fritz Gurlitt in Berlin and subsequently to Galerie Alfred Flechtheim in Düsseldorf on consignment by early 1920 at the latest. Klee noted the sale of the work by Goltz in April 1920, but the buyer is unknown. It can be assumed that “Federpflanze” was sold as part of the exhibition In memoriam Lehmbruck †, Paul Klee, Walter Tanck at Galerie Alfred Flechtheim in Düsseldorf, possibly purchased by the gallery itself or by Alfred Flechtheim as a private individual. From 1926 to 1929, art dealer Alfred Flechtheim designated the work as part of his private collection. In January 1934, Alexander Vömel, the former director of Galerie Alfred Flechtheim in Düsseldorf, consigned it to the Mayor Gallery in London, where Flechtheim had worked since 1933. The Mayor Gallery listed the painting as its “property” in the catalog for two exhibitions in 1934 and 1936, before it was transferred to Alfred Flechtheim in October 1936 (“Taken AF”) according to the entry in the inventory book. A year later, after Flechtheim’s death in March 1937, it is again found in the Mayor Gallery’s holdings, this time as half owned by the Mayor Gallery and half by Fred Hoyland Mayor, one of the gallery’s three directors. At the end of 1938, the painting became the property of Douglas Cooper, the former co-owner of the Mayor Gallery. Before it was purchased by G. David Thompson for his collection at an unknown date, it had been held in London by Rodney Phillips Esq. and the Gimpel Fils Gallery. The work remained in the Thompson Collection until it was sold to Galerie Beyeler in Basel in 1960. That year, the state of North Rhine-Westphalia purchased 88 works by Klee from Galerie Beyeler, including “Federpflanze,” which together were transferred to the Stiftung Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen in 1961.

Credit line

Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf

Exhibitions

Paul Klee. Wachstum regt sich. Klees Zwiesprache mit der Natur, 24.3.-26.5.1990, Saarland Museum, Saarbrücken/Städtische Galerie im Prinz-Max Palais, Karlsruhe
Süddeutsche Freiheit. Kunst der Revolution in München 1919, 9.11.1993-8.1.1994, Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, München
Unser 20. Jahrhundert - Meisterwerke von Picasso bis Beuys, 14.7.-28.10.2000, Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf
Paul Klee. Kleinode. Die Sammlung, 22.6.-25.8.2001, Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf
Paul Klee - Im Zeichen der Teilung, 20.1.-16.4.1995, Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf
100 x Paul Klee. Geschichte der Bilder, 28.9.2012-20.4.2013, Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf, K21 Ständehaus
Alfred Flechtheim.com - Kunsthändler der Avantgarde, 8.10.2013-11.1.2014, Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf, K20 Grabbeplatz
Paul Klee! Meisterwerke aus der Kunstsammlung NRW, 20.3.-18.7.2015, Kunsthalle Emden
100 x Paul Klee. Geschichte der Bilder, 28.9.2012-20.4.2013
museum global: Prolog: Paul Klee. Eine Sammlung auf Reisen, 12.10.2018-9.3.2019, Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf (K20 Grabbeplatz, Kleehalle)