Vermittlung - Kunstsammlung NRW / Online-Sammlung

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Foto: Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf

Information

Artist

Paul Klee

1879
Münchenbuchsee bei Bern, Schweiz

1940
Locarno-Muralto, Schweiz

Work data

Material/Technique

Watercolor, waxed, and pencil on chalk ground jute, original frame mouldings

Dimensions

Image: 120.5 × 111 cm
Frame: 141.7 × 132.3 × 8 cm

Signature

Bez. o.l.: "Klee", a.d. Keilrahmen: "1935 p 16 'Vermittlung' Klee"

Accession Number

0038

Catalogue Raisonné

Cat. Rais. Nr. 6878

Acquisition year

1960

Provenance

From the year of its creation in 1935, the work “Vermittlung” by Paul Klee remained the property of the artist, who gave it to his art dealer Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler on consignment that same year. The work can subsequently be found in Kahnweiler’s Galerie Simon, which was renamed Galerie Louise Leiris in 1941, until at least May 1947. After Paul Klee’s death in 1940, the work became the property of Klee’s wife Lily. Due to an agreement negotiated in Washington on May 25, 1946, the Paul Klee estate of around 6,000 works was at risk of being liquidated in favor of the Allied countries upon the death of the artist’s widow. Therefore, on behalf of Lily Klee – and two days before her death – the Bernese businessman Rolf Bürgi sold the entire artistic estate to the Bernese businessman Hermann Rupf and the Bernese publisher Hans Meyer-Benteli on September 20, 1946. Together with Bürgi and the Bernese architect Werner Allenbach, the two founded the Klee-Gesellschaft on September 24, 1946 and transferred the Paul Klee estate into its possession. In the 1950s, the work came to Curt Valentin, owner of the Buchholz Gallery and later the Curt Valentin Gallery in New York. Subsequently, presumably around 1955, it can be traced to Berggruen & Cie. in Paris. At an unknown date, G. David Thompson purchased it for his collection, where it remained until it was sold to Galerie Beyeler in Basel in 1960. The state of North Rhine-Westphalia subsequently purchased the work “Vermittlung” from Galerie Beyeler together with 87 other 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

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
100 x Paul Klee. Geschichte der Bilder, 28.9.2012-20.4.2013, Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf, K21 Ständehaus
Paul Klee! Meisterwerke aus der Kunstsammlung NRW, 20.3.-18.7.2015, Kunsthalle Emden
museum global: Prolog: Paul Klee. Eine Sammlung auf Reisen, 12.10.2018-9.3.2019, Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf (K20 Grabbeplatz, Kleehalle)