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Information

Artist

Paul Klee

1879
Münchenbuchsee bei Bern, Schweiz

1940
Locarno-Muralto, Schweiz

Work data

Material/Technique

Sprayed and brushed watercolor on paper, mounted on cardboard

Dimensions

Sheet: 51,5 × 35,5 cm
Frame: 92,3 × 72,3 × 3,5 cm

Signature

Bez. u.r.: "Klee", a.d. Karton u.: "1925 'W.3.' monsieur Perlenschwein", u.l. mit Bleistift: "S cl"

Accession Number

0014

Catalogue Raisonné

Cat. Rais. Nr. 3904

Acquisition year

1960

Provenance

From its creation in 1925, the watercolor “monsieur Perlenschwein” by Paul Klee remained the property of the artist, who gave it to the art dealer Rudolf Probst on consignment for a short time in 1926. In the spring of 1928, it was exhibited at Alfred Flechtheim’s gallery in Berlin, which returned it to the artist in September 1928. After Paul Klee’s death in 1940, the work became the property of Klee’s wife Lily as part of his artistic estate. In September 1943, she sold the watercolor to a private collection, who owned it until at least 1945. It was subsequently held by the Galerie d’Art Moderne in Basel and the Saidenberg Gallery in New York before G. David Thompson purchased it for his collection around 1953. The work remained in his collection until it was sold to the Galerie Beyeler in Basel in 1960. The state of North Rhine-Westphalia subsequently purchased the watercolor “monsieur Perlenschwein” from Galerie Beyeler together with a further 87 works by Paul Klee. They formed the basis of the Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, which was founded in 1961.

Credit line

Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf

Exhibitions
  • Paul Klee. Retrospective, 1.4.-22.5.1993, Aichi Prefectural Museum of Art, Nagoya
  • Pierrot - Melancholie und Maske, 14.9.-2.12.1995, Haus der Kunst, München
  • Gesichter der Zeit. Ein Panorama aus Physiognomien in Zeichnung und Graphik, 27.9.1999-8.1.2000, Kupferstichkabinett, Berlin
  • Paul Klee, Figure e metamorfosi, 23.11.2000-27.2.2001, Museo Morandi, Bologna
  • Paul Klee. Kleinode. Die Sammlung, 22.6.-25.8.2001, Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf
  • Paul Klee - Meisterwerke der Sammlung Djerassi, 15.6.-28.9.2002, Kunsthalle Krems
  • Paul Klee. Erzählung und Schöpfung, 23.6.-9.12.2006, Kawamura Memorial Museum of Art, Sakura/Hokkaido Museum of Modern Art, Sapporo/The Miyagi Museum of Art, Sendai
  • Hans Reichel 1892-1958. Im Spannungsfeld von Bauhaus und École de Paris, 12.2.-16.4.2005, Stiftung Moritzburg, Halle
  • Hans Reichel 1892-1958. Im Spannungsfeld von Bauhaus und École de Paris, 28.4.-2.7.2005, Museum im Kulturspeicher, Würzburg
  • Masterpieces of Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen / Meisterwerke der Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, 17.10.2008-30.5.2009, Nagoya City Art Museum, Bunkamura Museum of Art in Tokyo, Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Art in Kobe
  • Die Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen zu Gast in Gottorf. Picasso, Klee, Beckmann, Matisse und weitere Künstler in Schloß Gottorf, 18.7.-24.10.2009, Landesmuseum für Kunst und Kulturgeschichte, Stiftung Schleswig-Holsteinische Landesmuseen, Schloß Gottorf, Schleswig
  • 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 - Sonderklasse, unverkäuflich, 24.10.2014-24.5.2015, Paul Klee Zentrum, Bern / Museum der Bildenden Künste, Leipzig
  • 100 x Paul Klee. Geschichte der Bilder, 28.9.2012-20.4.2013
  • Paul Klee. L'ironie à l'œuvre, 5.4.-31.7.2016, Centre Pompidou, Musée national d'art moderne, Galerie 2, Paris
  • museum global: Prolog: Paul Klee. Eine Sammlung auf Reisen, 12.10.2018-9.3.2019, Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf (K20 Grabbeplatz, Kleehalle)
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If you have any questions or comments about works in the collection, please send us an e-mail to
service [​at​] kunstsammlung.de

For image requests and questions about image rights, please contact
vertrieb [​at​] kunstsammlung.de

Further literature on the works in the collection can be found in our special library for art of the 20th- and 21st-centuries:

Werner Schmalenbach Library

Online Catalog

Links

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of Paul Klee

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