Paul Klee
Picture of a Town (Red-Green Gradated) [with the Red Dome], 1923
Oil on cardboard on plywood; original frame, 46 x 35 cm
Zentrum Paul Klee, Bern, Donation Livia Klee
The title of this work from 1923 refers to the way Klee composed it. He began with the two colours red and green. He then mixed in black or white, creating a broad range of light and dark gradations. Klee took familiar colour theories, such as Johannes Itten’s colour wheel or Philipp Otto Runge’s colour sphere, as his starting point. These theories centre on the primary colours of red, yellow, and blue. Opposite to them are the secondary colours of green, purple, and orange. The colour sphere also incorporates the full tonal range of each colour, so that black and white lie on opposite poles.