Museum Folkwang Collection Online
Feuer bei Vollmond
  • Paul Klee
  • Feuer bei Vollmond, 1933

  • Fire at Full Moon
  • Aquarelle over Paste Color on Grounded Canvas
  • 50 x 65 cm
  • Acquired in 1958 with support of the Eugen-und-Agnes-von-Waldthausen-Platzhoff-Museums-Stiftung and the Folkwang-Museumsverein
  • Inv. G 284
  • Commentary›Fire at Full Moon‹ is one of the artist’s most systematic works. On the basis of a theory of pictorial forms he had been developing since 1920, Klee placed various large color fields and color values against and next to one another. In doing so, the question of relations between sense, form and color of the surface was of central importance. Two color fields, a yellow disc and an irregular red cross, form the poles in the diversely designed, landscape-like composition, whose graphic elements create an effect of perspective in certain places. ›Fire at Full Moon‹ was probably painted in the summer of 1933. In a letter to his wife of September 1933, Klee wrote: »At the moment I am working purely with color and make few light-dark contrasts, none if possible, but I haven't succeeded; so I play around with the ground tone, here gray, then red and later blue. Generally it comes out well in the end, but it is quite tiring and the time passes more quickly than usual.«
    The title ›Fire at Full Moon‹ raises some questions as to interpretation, for example concerning a reference to National Socialism and Klee's suspension from his teaching post at the Düsseldorf Kunstakademie in 1933 – an interpretation supported by a lot of drawings (and their enigmatic titles) made in the same year.
  • Provenance1933–1940: Atelier des Künstlers | 1940–spätestens 1946: Lily Klee (1876–1946), Bern | spätestens 1946–1957: Margrit (1887–1961) und Hermann (1880–1962) Rupf, Bern | 1957–spätestens 06.1958: Berggruen & Cie. bzw. Heinz Berggruen (1914–2007) und Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler (1884–1979), Paris | spätestens 06.1958: Galerie Dr. Werner Rusche, Köln | seit 06.1958: Museum Folkwang, Essen

    Provenienz unbelastet

    Die Untersuchung erfolgte im Rahmen des vom Deutschen Zentrum Kulturgutverluste geförderten Projekts zur Bestandsprüfung (01.10.2019–30.09.2020).
  • Obj_Id: 3,355
  • Obj_Internet_S: ja
  • Obj_Ownership_S (Verantw):Painting, Sculpture, Media Art
  • Obj_SpareNField01_N (Verantw):
  • Obj_Creditline_S: Museum Folkwang, Essen, Gemäldesammlung
  • Obj_Title1_S: Feuer bei Vollmond
  • Obj_Title2_S: Fire at Full Moon
  • Obj_PartDescription_S (Titelerg):
  • Obj_SpareMField01_M (Alle Titel): Feuer bei Vollmond Fire at Full Moon
  • Obj_Dating_S: 1933
  • Jahr von: 1,933
  • Jahr bis: 1,933
  • Obj_IdentNr_S: G 284
  • Obj_IdentNrSort_S: G 0284
  • Obj_Classification_S (Objtyp): Painting
  • Obj_Crate_S: 50 x 65 cm
  • Obj_Material_S: Aquarelle over Paste Color on Grounded Canvas
  • Obj_Technique_S:
  • Obj_SpareSField01_S (Mat./Tech.): Aquarelle over Paste Color on Grounded Canvas
  • Obj_AccNote_S (Erwerb): Acquired in 1958 with support of the Eugen-und-Agnes-von-Waldthausen-Platzhoff-Museums-Stiftung and the Folkwang-Museumsverein
  • Obj_PermanentLocation_S (Standort):
  • Obj_Condition1_S (Druckerei):
  • Obj_Condition2_S (Auflage):
  • Obj_Subtype_S (Genre):
  • Obj_Rights_S:
Commentary
Artists
Provenance

›Fire at Full Moon‹ is one of the artist’s most systematic works. On the basis of a theory of pictorial forms he had been developing since 1920, Klee placed various large color fields and color values against and next to one another. In doing so, the question of relations between sense, form and color of the surface was of central importance. Two color fields, a yellow disc and an irregular red cross, form the poles in the diversely designed, landscape-like composition, whose graphic elements create an effect of perspective in certain places. ›Fire at Full Moon‹ was probably painted in the summer of 1933. In a letter to his wife of September 1933, Klee wrote: »At the moment I am working purely with color and make few light-dark contrasts, none if possible, but I haven't succeeded; so I play around with the ground tone, here gray, then red and later blue. Generally it comes out well in the end, but it is quite tiring and the time passes more quickly than usual.«
The title ›Fire at Full Moon‹ raises some questions as to interpretation, for example concerning a reference to National Socialism and Klee's suspension from his teaching post at the Düsseldorf Kunstakademie in 1933 – an interpretation supported by a lot of drawings (and their enigmatic titles) made in the same year.