Paul Klee

Introduction
Early life and education
Artistic maturity
Legacy

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At a Glance

Paul Klee summary

Quizzes

Color pastels, colored chalk, colorful chalk. Hompepage blog 2009, arts and entertainment, history and society

Ultimate Art Quiz

Close-up of a palette held by a man. Mixing paint, painting, color mixing.

Artists, Painters, & Architects

"Deux Fantassins Casques (Two Helmeted Infantrymen)" Roger de La Fresnaye, 1917. Pen and black ink with wash, 30.8x19.4 cm

Cubism: Art and Artists

Bauhaus

Tate Modern extension Switch House, London, England. (Tavatnik, museums). Photo dated 2017.

Can You Match These Lesser-Known Paintings to Their Artists?

Related Questions

How did Cubism influence Paul Klee’s drawings of 1912 and 1913?
How did Paul Klee create his oil transfer paintings?
How did Paul Klee illustrate Voltaire’s Candide?
How did Paul Klee’s Bauhaus paintings differ from his earlier work?
How did Paul Klee’s artwork change after World War I ended?
How did Paul Klee’s musical parents influence his early life?
How did Paul Klee’s trip to Tunisia transform his use of colour?
How did Paul Klee’s visit to Italy change his view of art?
How did Renaissance prints influence Paul Klee’s Inventions etchings?
How did Wassily Kandinsky influence Paul Klee’s approach to abstract art?
How did World War I appear indirectly in Paul Klee’s paintings?
How did children’s drawings influence Paul Klee’s art?
How did music influence Paul Klee’s paintings and compositions?
How did political events in Nazi Germany appear in Paul Klee’s art?
How many artworks did Paul Klee produce during his career?
What artistic features distinguish Paul Klee’s Tunisia watercolours?
What is Paul Klee’s Pedagogical Sketchbook about?
What is depicted in Paul Klee’s Room Perspective with Inhabitants?
What kinds of drawings did Paul Klee make as a child?
What nationality did Paul Klee hold under Swiss law?
What techniques did Paul Klee use in Ad Parnassum?
What themes appear in Paul Klee’s late angel drawings?
What themes did Paul Klee explore in the etching series Inventions?
When did Paul Klee begin teaching at the Bauhaus?
When did Paul Klee join the circle of Der Blaue Reiter?
When did Paul Klee play with the Bern symphony orchestra?
Where and when was Paul Klee born?
Which French artists influenced Paul Klee’s work before 1911?
Which illness prevented Paul Klee from working for more than a year?
Which instrument did Paul Klee play?
Who traveled with Paul Klee to Tunisia in 1914?
Who was Lily Stumpf?
Who was Paul Klee’s only child?
Why are Paul Klee’s painting titles important to interpreting his art?
Why did Lily Stumpf’s piano teaching matter to Paul Klee’s early career?
Why did Paul Klee apply for Swiss citizenship late in his life?
Why did Paul Klee consider a career in music?
Why did Paul Klee resign from the Bauhaus in 1931?
Why did Paul Klee return to Switzerland in 1933?
Why did Paul Klee turn to caricature in his early artwork?
Why did Paul Klee use letters and signs in many of his artworks?
Why was Paul Klee dismissed from the Dusseldorf Academy in 1933?
Why was Paul Klee’s first public exhibition in 1906 unsuccessful?
Why is Piet Mondrian so famous?
What is Piet Mondrian famous for?
What was Piet Mondrian’s family like?
What is Joan Miró famous for?
Why is Edvard Munch so famous?
What was the tragedy of Edvard Munch?
What is Edvard Munch most known for?
What was the impact of Edvard Munch’s work on modern art?
Why is Albrecht Dürer so famous?
What is Albrecht Dürer known for?

Visual Arts Painting Painters

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External Websites

Artnet - Paul Klee
Art in Context - Paul Klee - Modernist, Colorist, Theorist, and Innovator
The Art Story - Biography of Paul Klee
BBC - How KleeÂ’s Â‘angel of historyÂ’ took flight
The Metropolitan Opera - Paul Klee (1879Â–1940)
Art UK - The surreal and celestial compositions of Paul Klee
Independent - Paul Klee: Five things you should know about the renegade German-Swiss painter
Official Site of Zentrum Paul Klee
Guggenheim - Biography of Paul Klee
Official Site of Paul Klee

Britannica Websites

Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students.

Paul Klee - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up)

Paul Klee

Swiss-German artist

Written by

Marcel Franciscono

Professor of Art History, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Author of Paul Klee, 1879–1940: His Life and Work.

Marcel Franciscono

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Britannica Editors

Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree....

Britannica Editors

History

Paul Klee (born December 18, 1879, Münchenbuchsee, near Bern, Switzerland—died June 29, 1940, Muralto, near Locarno) was a Swiss-German painter and draftsman who was one of the foremost artists of the 20th century. Klee’s mother, née Ida Maria Frick of Basel, and his German-born father, Hans Klee, were both trained as musicians. By Swiss law, Paul Klee held his father’s nationality; late in life he applied for Swiss citizenship but died just days before it...

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