Portrait Sketch of a Clown

Prints and Drawings

1926

Paul Klee
German, born Switzerland, 1879-1940

Status: Currently Off View
Department: Prints and Drawings

Artist: Paul Klee
Title: Portrait Sketch of a Clown
Place: Germany (Artist's nationality:)
Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.: 1926
Medium: Graphite on cream wove paper, laid down on cream card
Inscriptions: Signed recto, lower right, in pen and black ink: "Klee"; inscribed, lower center on mount, in pen and black ink: "1926. H.7. Bildn. skizze eines Clown"
Dimensions: Primary support: 21 × 12.3 cm (8 5/16 × 4 7/8 in.); Secondary support: 28.3 × 18 cm (11 3/16 × 7 1/8 in.)
Credit Line: Gift of Dorothy Braude Edinburg to the Harry B. and Bessie K. Braude Memorial Collection
Reference Number: 1998.713
Copyright: © 2018 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn

Wil Grohmann, Paul Klee: Handzeichnungen II 1921–1930 (Potsdam, 1934), no. 99.
Paul Klee Foundation, Paul Klee: Catalogue Raisonné 4 (Bern, 2000), p. 485, no. 4130 (ill.).

Providence, R. I., Annmary Brown Memorial, Brown University, “Poetry and Fact in Modern Art,” May 2–June 5, 1962.
Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, November 1964–April 1965.
New York, Saidenberg Gallery, “Paul Klee: A Retrospective Exhibition,” October 14–November 29, 1969, cat. 24.
Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, January 26-April 24, 1980.
The Art Institute of Chicago, “Drawn to Form: Modern Drawings,” June 11–September 7, 1999, checklist 24.

Lily Klee (died 1946), Bern [Angela Rosengart, Galerie Rosengart], her estate; to Werner Allenbach, Bern, until 1957 [Angela Rosengart and the Paul Klee Foundation 2000]; Galerie Rosengart, Lucerne, 1957–1958 [Paul Klee Foundation 2000]; Klipstein and Kornfeld, Bern, about 1958 [Paul Klee Foundation 2000]; Berggruen and Company, Paris, 1959 [Paul Klee Foundation 2000]; Saidenberg Gallery, New York, 1959–1961 [Paul Klee Foundation 2000]; sold to Dorothy Braude Edinburg, December 12, 1961 [invoice]; given to the Art Institute, 1998.

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