The Virtue Wagon (to the memory of October 5, 1922)

Artist Paul Klee (Swiss, 1879 - 1940)

Date1922

MediumOil transfer drawing and watercolor on prepared ground on paper

DimensionsUnframed: 12 1/4 x 16 inches (31.12 x 40.64 cm)
Framed: 21 1/4 x 24 1/4 x 1 1/2 inches (53.98 x 61.6 x 3.81 cm)

Credit LineGift of the Friends of Art

Object numberF71-15

SignedRecto, t.r.corner: "Klee"

On View

Not on view

Collections

Modern Art

Terms

Gallery Label

This drawing alludes to Mozart’s opera The Magic Flute. The figures riding atop Paul Klee’s virtue wagon are Mozart’s Queen of the Night and her Three Ladies, who feign high moral purpose in order to deceive and take control from those who would do good. This scene is an allegory. It actually refers to a power struggle amongst faculty at the Bauhaus, the famed German school of modern art, design, and architecture. Klee taught the bookbinding, stained glass, and mural painting workshops there from 1921 to 1931.

Provenance

The artist (1879-1940), Bern, Switzerland, 1922-1940;

Inherited by his wife, Lily Klee (1876-1946), Bern, Switzerland, 1940-1946;

Purchased from her estate by the Paul Klee Foundation, Bern, Switzerland, 1946-1950;

Purchased from the Paul Klee Foundation by Rolf (1906-1967) and Catherine E. Bürgi, Bern, Switzerland, 1950-1953;

Purchased from Rolf and Catherine E. Bürgi, through Buchholz Gallery-Curt Valentin, New York, stock no. 14883, by Arnold H. (1904-1978) and Adele H. (1902-1973) Maremont, Winnetka, IL, 1953-February 1969 [1];

Purchased from the Maremonts, through B. C. Holland Gallery, Chicago, by Galerie Beyeler, Basel, stock no. 5699, February 1969-May 1971 [2];

Purchased from Galerie Beyeler by Jane Wade Ltd., New York, May 1971;

Purchased from Jane Wade Ltd. by the Friends of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1971;

Their gift to The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1971.

NOTES:

[1] The Bürgis consigned the drawing to Buchholz Gallery in 1950. Museum of Modern Art Archives, New York, Curt Valentin Papers, III.C.2, copy in NAMA curatorial files. Buchholz Gallery was renamed Curt Valentin Gallery in 1951.

[2] According to Dr. Ulf Küster, Curator, Fondation Beyeler, in an email to MacKenzie Mallon, Specialist, Provenance, December 6, 2016, NAMA curatorial files.

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