Angel, Still Groping Explained

Image Upright:1.3
Angel, Still Groping
Artist:Paul Klee
Year:1939
Type:Watercolor on paper
Height Metric:29.4
Width Metric:20.8
Museum:Zentrum Paul Klee
City:Bern

Angel, Still Groping is a watercolor on paper painting by Swiss German painter Paul Klee, from 1939. it is held at the Zentrum Paul Klee, in Bern.[1]

History and description

Klee, after his dismissal in Germany as a professor, and his qualification as a “degenerate artist”, after the Nazi takeover, in 1933, settled in Switzerland, his country of birth. He also faced the diagnosis that he had an incurable disease. In his final years, Klee painted 28 paintings of angels, in 1939, and another four in 1940, the year of his death. His angels are depicted with childish humour, and are not transcendent mystical beings.[2] [3]

Klee's angel in this painting has a childish appearance, still groping, with blond hair, large blue eyes, and a red mouth, and is tilted down to the right of the painting. The outstretched arm of the angel, with three fingers and his thumb pointing forward, divides the image into a light upper and dark lower half.[4]

See also

Notes and References

  1. Roland Doschka, Paul Klee – Zwischen Himmel und Erde – Bilderwelten von Paul Klee, Catalog for the exhibition in the Stadtmuseum Lindau, 2017, p. 135 (German)
  2. Roland Doschka, Paul Klee – Zwischen Himmel und Erde – Bilderwelten von Paul Klee, Catalog for the exhibition in the Stadtmuseum Lindau, 2017, p. 135 (German)
  3. https://www.zpk.org/de/service-navigation/medien/medienmitteilungen-2012/die-engel-von-klee_0-493.html Ausstellungseröffnung «Die Engel von Klee, Zentrum Paul Klee
  4. Roland Doschka, Paul Klee – Zwischen Himmel und Erde – Bilderwelten von Paul Klee, Catalog for the exhibition in the Stadtmuseum Lindau, 2017, p. 136 (German)