The Tree of Houses
1918
Paul Klee (Swiss, 1879-1940)
Not on View

"Tree of Houses" typifies Klee's experiments with a variety of materials and techniques. In this case, he has painted over strips of gauze and paper, creating a rich, tactile surface. A fanciful apartment complex emerges out of a forest, its various levels connected by ladders. Below, a solitary figure begins his ascent.

Details

  • Artist Name: Paul Klee (Swiss, 1879-1940)
  • Title: The Tree of Houses
  • Date: 1918
  • Medium: Watercolor, gouache and India ink on chalk-primed gauze on wove papers, mounted on cardboard
  • Dimensions: comp: 8-5/8 x 7-1/4 in. (21.9 x 18.4 cm); mount: 9-5/8 x 7-7/8 in. (24.4 x 20.0 cm)
  • Credit Line: Norton Simon Museum, The Blue Four Galka Scheyer Collection
  • Accession Number: P.1953.025
  • Copyright: © Norton Simon Museum

Object Information

The artist, sold 1919 to;
[Galerie Der Strum, Berlin, probably sold c. 1919 to];
[Stadtsyndicus a.D. Kauth, Berlin, sold c. 1925 to];
Galka Scheyer;
Pasadena Art Institute, Pasadena, 1953-1954;
Pasadena Art Museum, Pasadena,1954-1975;
Norton Simon Museum, 1975.

Maven of Modernism: Galka Scheyer in California

  • Norton Simon Museum, 2017-04-07 to 2017-09-25

XXIX. Sonder-Ausstellung: Paul Klee und Lyonel Feininger

  • Hannover, Kestner-Gesellschaft, 1919-11-30 to 1920-01-01

Paul Klee, Johannes Molzahn, Kurt Schwitters

  • Der Sturm, 1919-01 to

The Klee Universe

  • Neue Nationalgalerie, 2008-10-31 to 2009-02-08

Paul Klee Memorial Exhibition [organized by MOMA]

  • Los Angeles, Stendahl Art Galleries, 1941-05-08 to 1941-05-18

Blue Four exhibition

  • San Diego, San Diego Fine Arts Gallery, 1927-01 to 1927-02
  • San Diego, San Diego Fine Arts Gallery, to

The Blue Four: Feininger, Jawlensky, Kandinsky, Paul Klee

  • Portland, Portland Art Association and the Museum of Art, 1927-04-08 to 1927-05-01
  • Spokane, Spokane Art Association, 1927-05-15 to 1927-05-31
  • San Francisco, California School of Fine Arts, 1927-03-01 to 1927-03-20

Blue Four exhibition

  • Henry Art Gallery, 1927-10 to 1927-10

The Blue Four: Feininger, Jawlensky, Kandinsky, Paul Klee

  • Los Angeles, University of California, Los Angeles, Art Department, 1926-11 to 1926-12-28
  • Los Angeles, Los Angeles Museum, 1926-10 to

The Blue Four: Feininger, Jawlensky, Kandinsky, Paul Klee

  • California Palace of the Legion of Honor, 1931-04-23 to 1931-05-08

The Blue Four: Feininger, Jawlensky, Kandinsky, Paul Klee

  • Oakland Art Gallery, 1926-05-02 to 1926-06-15

Paul Klee

  • Norton Simon Museum, 1986-06-05 to 1987-06-28

German Expressionism

  • Pasadena Art Museum, 1961-04-25 to 1961-06-04

Paul Klee 1879-1940: A Restrospective Exhibition [organized by The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and the Pasadena Art Museum]

  • Pasadena, Pasadena Art Museum, 1967-02-21 to 1967-02-04
  • San Francisco Museum of Art, 1967-04-13 to 1967-05-14
  • Columbus Museum of Art, 1967-05-25 to 1967-06-25
  • Cleveland Museum of Art, 1967-07-05 to 1967-08-13
  • Kansas City, William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art, 1967-09-01 to 1967-09-30
  • Baltimore Museum of Art, 1967-10-24 to 1967-11-19
  • St. Louis, Washington University, Gallery of Art, 1967-12-03 to 1968-01-05
  • Philadelphia, Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1968-01-15 to 1968-02-15

30 Years of Painting, Water Colors, Drawings and Lithographs by Paul Klee

  • Modern Institute of Art (Beverly Hills, California), 1948-09-03 to 1948-10-06

Selections from Feininger, Jawlensky, Kandinsky, Paul Klee. The Blue Four Galka E. Scheyer Collection

  • Seattle Art Museum, 1956-10-10 to 1956-11-04
  • Portland, Portland Art Museum, 1956-11-08 to 1956-11-30
  • , 1957-01-01 to 1957-01-31
  • Marion Koogler McNay Art Institute, 1957-03-02 to 1957-04-01
  • Kansas City, William Rockhill Nelson Gallery, 1957-11-15 to 1957-12-15
  • San Francisco Museum of Art, 1958-01-14 to 1958-02-23
  • Vancouver Art Gallery, 1956-07 to 1956-08-31

50 years bauhaus

  • Stuttgart, Wurttembergischer Kunstverein, 1968-05-05 to 1968-07-28
  • Royal Academy of Arts (Great Britain), 1968-09-19 to 1968-10-27
  • Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, 1968-11-30 to 1969-01-01
  • Paris, Musee National d'Art Moderne, 1969-04-01 to 1969-06-22
  • Illinois Institute of Technology, 1969-08-25 to 1969-09-26
  • Toronto, Art Gallery of Ontario, 1969-12-05 to 1970-02-01
  • Pasadena Art Museum, 1970-03-16 to 1970-04-26
  • Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, 1970 to 1971
  • Tokyo, National Museum of Modern Art, 1971 to 1971

The Galka Scheyer Collection: Klee, Nolde, Jawlensky, Moholy-Nagy, Schmidt-Rottluff, Schwitters, Archipenko, Kandinsky, Lissitzky, Feininger, Kirchner, Dix_1

  • La Jolla, Art Center in La Jolla, 1960-07-05 to 1960-08-14

Paul Klee

  • Norton Simon Museum, 1987-07-23 to 1988-05-15

Paul Klee: An Exhibition from the Galka E. Scheyer Collection of the Pasadena Art Museum

  • University of California, Berkeley Art Museum, 1962-05-03 to 1962-05-27

Paul Klee: Fifty Paintings, Drawings and Prints from the Galka E. Scheyer Collection

  • Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1959-10-24 to 1959-12-06
  • Minneapolis, University of Minnesota, University Gallery, 1960-01-04 to 1960-02-08
  • Minneapolis, Walker Art Center, 1960-03 to 1960-04

The Blue Four and Their Contemporaries

  • Norton Simon Museum, 1991-06-20 to 1992-05-24

Bauhaus Painters; Spirit of Modernism: Wassily Kandinsky, Paul Klee, Lyonel Feininger, Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, El Lissitzky, Oskar Schlemmer, Alexander Archipenko, Alexei Jawlensky and Others

  • Seoul, Ho-Am Art Museum, 1996-02-08 to 1996-04-28

The Spirit of Modernism: Galka Scheyer in the New World

  • Norton Simon Museum, 1994-11-17 to 1996-01-14

Permanent and Loan Collection, 1973

  • Pasadena Museum of Modern Art, 1973-01-30 to 1973-12-31

My Four Kings: Galka Scheyer and the Blue Four

  • Norton Simon Museum, 2002-12-13 to 2003-04-14

The Blue Four-Galka Scheyer Collection From The Norton Simon Museum

  • Henry Art Gallery, 1997-07-17 to 1997-10-05
  • Paul Klee, p. 7
  • Jollos, Waldemar, Das Kunsblatt, p. 227
  • Rosenthal, Mark, Arts Magazine, p. 111
  • Henry, Sara Lynn, Pantheon, fig. 6 p. 151
  • Hildebrandt, Hans, Die Kunst des 19. und 12. Jarhunderts, 1924, p. 422
  • Salz, Peter, German Expressionist Painting, 1957, fig. 136 p. 296
  • Ponente, Nello, Klee, 1960, pp. 54, 61, 62
  • Huggler, Max, The Drawings of Paul Klee, 1965, p. 25
  • Kröll, Christina, Die Bildtitel Paul Klees: Eine Studie zur Beziehung von Bild und Sprache in der Kunst des zwanzigsten Jarhrjunderts, 1968, pp. 90, 93, 172, 175, 176
  • The Blue Four Galka Scheyer Collection, Norton Simon Museum of Art at Pasadena, 1976, no. 258 pp. 99, 102
  • Jordan, Jim M., Paul Klee and Cubism, 1984, p. 165
  • Kersten, Wolfgang, Paul Klee: "Zerstörung der Konstruction zuliebe?", 1987, pp. 44, 45-47, 55-56, 63, 96, 137, 138, 140, 154
  • Werckmeister, O. K., The Making of Paul Klee's Career, 1914-1920, 1989, pp. 112, 113, 115, 117, 136
  • Kersten, Wolfgang and Osamu Okuda, Paul Klee: Im Zeichen der Teilung, 1995, p. 58
  • Paul Klee Catalogue Raisonné, Volume 2, 1913-1918, 2000, no. 1930
  • Barnett, Vivian Endicott, The Blue Four Collection at the Norton Simon Museum, 2002, no. 303 pp. 268-270; cover
  • Anger, Jenny, Paul Klee and The Decorative in Modern Art, 2002, fig. 41 pp. 109-110
  • Grohmann, Will, Paul Klee, 2003, p. 200

Additional Artwork by Artist

Absorption Paul Klee 1919
Arabian Bride Paul Klee 1924
First Drawing for "Specter of a Genius" Paul Klee 1922

Image reproduction permission may be granted for scholarly or arts related commercial use. All image requests, regardless of their intended purpose, should be submitted via the reproduction request form.

Images may be protected by copyright and other intellectual property rights. Additional permission may be required.

Approved requests for the reproduction of an image will receive a contract detailing all fees and conditions of use of the image. Upon receipt of both the signed contract and full payment, the Office of Rights and Reproductions will provide the image. A complimentary copy of the published material must be provided to the Norton Simon Museum.

Reproduction Request Form