Cubism & Early Abstraction · 1879–1940 · Swiss

Paul Klee

After a trip to Tunisia in 1914, Klee wrote in his diary: “Color and I are one. I am a painter.” He later taught color theory at the Bauhaus.

Across 5 works, the colors are mostly brown (38%), gray (21%) and orange (12%). On average the canvases are light, moderately saturated and warm. Signature colors, used far more here than across the collection: light orange, light muted aqua, light muted red, pale sand and pigeon grey.

Color print

The swatches covering most of these canvases, averaged over every work, dark to light.

• MG 029 light orange 8.1% of canvas
• MG 180 pale sand 6.4% of canvas
• MG 214 pewter 5.4% of canvas
• MG 208 pigeon grey 5.2% of canvas
• MG 222 charcoal 4.6% of canvas
• MG 177 dark taupe 4.5% of canvas
• MG 219 bistre 4.1% of canvas
• MG 080 light muted aqua 3.8% of canvas
• MG 030 orange 3.3% of canvas
• MG 218 graphite 3.3% of canvas
• MG 215 grey 3.2% of canvas
• MG 171 bone 3.1% of canvas
• MG 213 light grey 2.9% of canvas
• MG 223 soot 2.6% of canvas
• MG 176 taupe 2.4% of canvas
• MG 033 light amber 2.3% of canvas

Measurements

Lightness

0.56

Contrast

0.41

Vividness

0.044

Warmth

+0.61

Complexity

127 cells

Hue range

0.38

Focus

0.04

Works

• Sumpflegende, 1919
• Villa R, 1919
• Angelus Novus, 1920
• Senecio, 1922
• Twittering Machine, 1922