Villa R (Paul Klee)
Villa R is an oil on wood landscape produced in 1919 by the Swiss-born German artist Paul Klee. [1]
| Villa R | |
|---|---|
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| Artist | Paul Klee |
| Year | 1919 |
| Medium | oil on wooden panel |
| Dimensions | 26.5 cm × 22.4 cm (10.4 in × 8.8 in) |
| Location | Kunstmuseum Basel, Basel |
Painted in an abstract style, the work depicts a white villa standing beside a red road winding into the mountains beyond. A full moon is shining overhead. In the foreground is a large capital letter R which appears to be a part of the landscape. The red road forms a diagonal across the painting and a row of green shapes, including the green letter R, form a second intersecting diagonal. The villa is positioned at the intersection.
The significance of the letter R is not revealed in the painting's title, but is believed to stand for Rosa. Klee had seen the Villa Rosa in the early 1900s on his travels through Italy, accompanied by Goethe's travel diary Italian Journey. [2]
In 1939 the painting was confiscated from an art gallery in Frankfurt-am-Main by the Nazis as "degenerate art" and sent with other confiscated works to an auction at the Fischer gallery in Lucerne, Switzerland. There it was sold to its current owners, the Kunstmuseum Basel.[3]
References
- "Paul Klee". Kunstmuseum Basel. Retrieved 22 January 2020.
- "Villa R". University of Iowa. Retrieved 22 January 2020.
- "PAUL KLEE UND DIE »ENTARTETE KUNST«". Zentrum Paul Klee. Retrieved 22 January 2020.