Paul Klee
Untitled (Aare landscape), 1900
Oil on canvas; folding screen, in five parts, 144,5 x 48 cm (5 Stück)
Privately owned in Switzerland, on deposit at the Zentrum Paul Klee, Bern
Klee painted this five-panelled work in 1900, during his summer vacation in Bern. He was, in fact, studying painting in Munich at the time. Here, he translated what he had learned in Munich into a thoroughly modern visual language. The subject – a landscape with trees and a river – is clearly recognizable. However, Klee omitted the details. The meadow, the water, and the trees appear two-dimensional and schematic. This makes the landscape seem flat, without spatial depth. It is interesting that Klee did not paint a continuous landscape. Rather, each panel shows a different view of the same scene. This fragmentation of the motif anticipates Cubism.