Evolution in Flight
- Date
- 1934
- Material
- Watercolor on canvas
- made in
- Switzerland, Europe
- Classification
- Paintings
- Collection
- Modern and Contemporary Art
- Current Location
- On View, Gallery 212
- Dimensions
- 16 3/8 × 19 1/2 in. (41.6 × 49.5 cm)
framed: 25 1/8 × 28 1/16 × 2 3/8 in. (63.8 × 71.3 × 6 cm) - Credit Line
- Gift of Morton D. May
- Rights
- © 2022 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
- Object Number
- 233:1954
NOTES
Veils of delicate color show a bird in flight with a tiny head, deep red neck, and wide outstretched wings. Paul Klee associated birds with freedom from earthly concerns and even compared them to angels. He achieved this work’s ethereal look by soaking the coarse back of a commercially prepared canvas with translucent washes of watercolor paint. Inspired by the drawings of children, Klee explored the unconscious as a means to access primal artistic impulses.
Provenance
- 1939
Galerie Simon (Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler), Paris, France [1]
1939/11/17 -
Nierendorf Gallery (Karl Nierendorf), New York, NY, USA, acquired from Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler [2]
Prescott Collection [3]
by 1948 -
Mrs. Gerald Breckenridge, Beverly Hills, CA [4]
- 1953/03/11
Paul Kantor Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
1953/03/11 - 1954
Morton D. May (1914-1983), St. Louis, MO, purchased from Paul Kantor Gallery [5]
1954 -
Saint Louis Art Museum, given by Morton D. May [6]
Notes:
[1] Confirmed through archival material (correspondence and a shipping list dated November 17, 1939) by Eva Wiederkehr Sladeczek, head of the Paul Klee catalogue raisonné project at the Kunstmuseum Bern [email dated July 1, 2002, SLAM document files].
[2] See note [1].
[3] See note [1].
[4] Mrs. Gerald Breckenridge is listed as the lender in a 1948 exhibition ["Klee – 30 Years” The Modern Institute of Art, Beverly Hills, CA, 1948, cat. 22].
[5] May purchased the painting from Paul Kantor Gallery on March 11, 1953 [Bill of sale, SLAM document files].
[6] Minutes of the Administrative Board of Control of the City Art Museum, December 9, 1954.
Galerie Simon (Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler), Paris, France [1]
1939/11/17 -
Nierendorf Gallery (Karl Nierendorf), New York, NY, USA, acquired from Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler [2]
Prescott Collection [3]
by 1948 -
Mrs. Gerald Breckenridge, Beverly Hills, CA [4]
- 1953/03/11
Paul Kantor Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
1953/03/11 - 1954
Morton D. May (1914-1983), St. Louis, MO, purchased from Paul Kantor Gallery [5]
1954 -
Saint Louis Art Museum, given by Morton D. May [6]
Notes:
[1] Confirmed through archival material (correspondence and a shipping list dated November 17, 1939) by Eva Wiederkehr Sladeczek, head of the Paul Klee catalogue raisonné project at the Kunstmuseum Bern [email dated July 1, 2002, SLAM document files].
[2] See note [1].
[3] See note [1].
[4] Mrs. Gerald Breckenridge is listed as the lender in a 1948 exhibition ["Klee – 30 Years” The Modern Institute of Art, Beverly Hills, CA, 1948, cat. 22].
[5] May purchased the painting from Paul Kantor Gallery on March 11, 1953 [Bill of sale, SLAM document files].
[6] Minutes of the Administrative Board of Control of the City Art Museum, December 9, 1954.
We regularly update records, which may be incomplete. If you have additional information, please contact us at provenance@slam.org.