Public data from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Learn more
About the Artwork
In this watercolor, acrobats and circus jugglers emerge from a complex pattern of shapes and colors. Two jugglers share a face and torso. A member of Der Blaue Reiter group in Munich, Paul Klee believed that the elements of color and shape alone could carry connotations of emotions, moods, and subjective feelings. His method was to begin painting without a subject, only settling upon something that could be recognized after layering colored form upon colored form.
Inscriptions
signed, upper left, in brown ink: Klee ; SECONDARY SUPPORT, by artist, lower center, in brown ink: 1923 /// 40 Karneval im Schnee [slashes part of inscription]
Provenance
"This work was found in the estate of a young graphic designer after his death in 1944. This young man must have been a personal acquaintance of Klee's." (letter from Doris Ryser of Karl u. Faber in departmental file); [Karl u. Faber, Munich, Dec. 11-12, 1968, lot no. 957]; [E.V. Thaw & Co., Inc., New York]
Exhibition history
Year in Review: 1969. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (January 27-February 22, 1970). Paul Klee: The Bauhaus Years. Des Moines Art Center, Des Moines, IA (organizer) (September 18-October 28, 1973). Works of Paul Klee. Josef Haubrich Kunsthalle, Cologne, Germany (organizer) (April 7-June 4, 1979). Creativity in Art and Science, 1860-1960. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 16-November 8, 1987). Directions in Drawing II: The Human Figure. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 5, 1991-January 12, 1992). Graphic Discontent: German Expressionism on Paper. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (January 14-May 27, 2018).
Quick Overview
- Artist
- Paul Klee (German, 1879–1940)
- Date
- 1923
- Medium
- watercolor
- Dimensions
- Sheet: 24 x 23.5 cm (9 7/16 x 9 1/4 in.); Secondary Support: 34.5 x 29.3 cm (13 9/16 x 11 9/16 in.)
- Type
- Drawing
- Classification
- Drawing
- Department
- Drawings
- Credit line
- Contemporary Collection of The Cleveland Museum of Art
- Accession no.
- 1969.46
More by Paul Klee in museum collections
Data retrieved from the Cleveland Museum of Art on October 8, 2026. The museum may have updated its record since.
Open-access museum record · AT-00011243
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