Paul Klee
Polyphone Strömung, 1929

Alfred Flechtheim and Paul Klee

After studying more or less as an autodidact with brief periods of tuition under Heinrich Knirr and Franz von Stuck in Munich, Paul Klee’s naturalistically sensitive drawings initially found acclaim in the Blauer Reiter circle of artists and in Herwarth Walden’s ‘Der Sturm’ in Berlin. Together with Paul Cassirer and Heinrich Thannhauser, Walden initially became his most important dealer. The abstract watercolours Klee painted on a trip to Tunis in 1914, in particular, resulted in the first sale of his works during World War I and praise from German art critics. Following his appointment to the Staatliches Bauhaus in Weimar in 1919, the format of his works, his painting technique and his supports changed, as did the formal vocabulary of Klee’s artistic style. Amorphous and geometrical elements, lineal structures and an encrypted pictorial language became characteristic features. Klee also wrote art theoretical theses.

Klee’s plan to move permanently to Düsseldorf after accepting a professorship in 1931 at the academy there was thwarted when the National Socialists seized power. In 1933 Klee had to endure his house in Dessau being searched and the confiscation of personal documents, as well as being publicly defamed as a ‘Galacian’ Jew, made to take compulsory leave and ultimately dismissed from his post as professor at the end of that year. Klee had to emigrate to Bern.

In 1937, 102 of the artist’s works were removed from public collections. Flechtheim first sought to establish a business contact with Klee in 1919. The artist had, however, already signed a sole agency agreement with Hans Goltz of Munich that ran until 1925. Nevertheless, Goltz sent works by Klee to Flechtheim on a ‘sale on commission’ basis. After founding the Klee Society in 1925, Klee managed his own business with various gallery owners, including Flechtheim, who received works to be sold on commission.

Klee gave Flechtheim a watercolour for his 50th birthday and submitted a contribution to the anniversary issue of ‘Der Querschnitt’. Flechtheim retaliated the following year. Between 1926 and 1933 both illustrations and reproductions of Klee’s works were published in ‘Der Querschnitt’. In 1933 Klee asked the galleries that represented him, including Flechtheim’s, to return his works and moved his marketing abroad. A general agreement made with Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler and the Galerie Simon came into effect from October 1933 onwards. In November 1933 Klee withdrew his claims against Flechtheim so as not to bring about his bankruptcy. Flechtheim even managed to organise an exhibition with Klee held in January 1934 in the Mayor Gallery in London for which he arranged for works to be sent to England from Germany. Apart from Klee and Flechtheim, the Mayor Gallery and the Galerie Simon in Paris also had a share in sales.

According to a contemporary witness, a work by Paul Klee – the identity and whereabouts of which remain unknown – was supposedly among those paintings still in Betty Flechtheim’s flat in Berlin at the time she committed suicide which were later confiscated.