(Münchenbuchsee near Berne 1879–1940 Muralto)
“Nächtliche Landschaft.1937.”, signed Klee, coloured pencil, watercolour on ground on paper (25.3 x 38.3 cm), laid down on thin backing cardboard (art card) 33 x 45.5 cm, to centre dated and inscribed: 1937. p.1. nächtliche Landschaft, framed, (PS)

Provenance:
Lily Klee, Berne (1940–1946)
Klee Society, Berne (from 1946)
Lawrence J. Heller, Washington/Dickerson;
Richard L. Feigen, New York/Chicago
Galerie Tarica, Geneva/Paris
Private Collection, Italy

Exhibited:
Bologna 1985, Galleria de’foscherari. Morandi e il suo tempo, no. 111008
Bologna 2000/2001, Museo Morandi, Paul Klee, figure e metamorfosi, 25 November 2000 – 4 March 2001, no. 81 (with ill.)
Milan 2007, Fondazione A. Mazzotta, Paul Klee - Teatro Magico, 26 January - 13 May 2007

Literature:
Spiller, Jürg (ed.), Paul Klee. Unendliche Naturgeschichte der bildnerischen Mittel verbunden mit Naturstudium und konstruktive Kompositionswege. Form- und Gestaltungslehre, vol. 2, Basle / Stuttgart 1970 (with ill.).
Paul-Klee-Stiftung, Kunstmuseum Bern (ed.), Catalogue raisonné Paul Klee, vol. 7 (1934–1937), Berne 2003, cat. no. 7037, p. 249 (with ill.).

Alongside the amorphous forms taken from nature, elements already present in Paul Klee’s works dating from the late 1920s are represented in ‘Nächtliche Landschaft’. He considered these borrowings from earlier work less as a ‘methodical’ retrospective on his own artistic production, but instead as isolated memories that appeared like dreams in his mind’s eye. ‘Nächtliche Landschaft’ and numerous other works from the artist’s last few productive years were executed using experimental techniques. He laid several layers of paints of differing colours over one another, so that an immaterial realm of light appears to glow from within the image. This glowing of individual pictorial elements is employed very consciously by the artist in his depiction of various elements of landscape (trees), and it can be ascribed to the chemical/physical reactions of the varying media with one another, as well as their mechanical manipulation by Paul Klee. Thanks to this experimentation in works, such as ‘Nächtliche Landschaft’, dating from the last few years of his production, Klee created work that seems to unveil the magic of painting.
(exh. cat., The Ey Exhibition, Paul Klee, Making Visible, Tate Modern, 16 October 2013 – 4 March 2014, London 2013, p. 212)