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    Foto: Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf

tief im Wald, 1939

Paul Klee

On view at K20

Information

Artist

Paul Klee

1879
Münchenbuchsee bei Bern, Schweiz

1940
Locarno-Muralto, Schweiz

Work data

Material/Technique

Tempera and watercolor on oil ground on canvas (Reconstructed frame 2024)

Dimensions

Frame: 58,5 × 51,4 × 6,5 cm

Signature

Bez. u.r.: "Klee", a.d. Keilrahmen: "1939 CC 14 'tief im Wald' Klee"

Accession Number

0052

Catalogue Raisonné

Cat. Rais. Nr. 8259

Acquisition year

1960

Provenance

The work “tief im Wald” by Paul Klee remained the property of the artist from its creation in 1939. After his death in 1940, it became the property of Klee’s wife Lily as part of his artistic estate. 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. The Klee-Gesellschaft sold the work to the Buchholz Gallery in New York in 1948. At an unknown date, G. David Thompson purchased it for his collection, where it remained until it was sold to the Galerie Beyeler in Basel in 1960. The state of North Rhine-Westphalia subsequently purchased the work “tief im Wald” 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. Wachstum regt sich. Klees Zwiesprache mit der Natur, 24.3.-26.5.1990, Saarland Museum, Saarbrücken/Städtische Galerie im Prinz-Max Palais, Karlsruhe
  • 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
  • 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)
  • Opening the Space. Fragen der Gegenwart an Werke der Sammlung / Works from the Collection in Light of Current Issues, 26.3.-28.8.2021, Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf (K20 Grabbeplatz), Henkel Galerie
  • Max Ernst und die Natur als Erfindung, 12.10.2022-21.1.2023, Kunstmuseum Bonn
Tags
abstrakt Klassische Moderne Natur
Service

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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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