Description
Astrological Fantasy Portrait is a painting by Paul Klee from 1924: on a deep black ground edged by a soft lavender-grey border stands a head in profile, drawn in fine white and pale green hatching and crowned with a tall, round hat with a tassel, while a moon, half-circles, an arrow, a cone and a small star float around it. The original is a small sheet in gouache and ink on paper mounted on cardboard, just 37.8 x 27.9 cm, held by The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. We paint it for you by hand on canvas, in oil or acrylic, in eight upright sizes from 30 x 40 to 136 x 180 cm or made to measure. Before we pack the starry head, we send you a photograph of it.
| Title: | Astrological Fantasy Portrait |
| Other titles: | Astrologisch-phantastisches Porträt (German title) · Ritratto astrologico-fantastico (Italian title) |
| Painter: | Paul Klee (1879–1940) |
| Year painted: | 1924 |
| Original size: | 37.8 cm x 27.9 cm (height x width) |
| Original technique: | Gouache and ink on paper mounted on cardboard |
| Painting style: | Modernism |
| Located at: | The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA |
| Our reproduction: | Hand-painted in oil or acrylic on canvas, 8 sizes or made to measure |
Astrological Fantasy Portrait – Paul Klee
What does Astrological Fantasy Portrait show?
The ground is almost entirely black, as dark as a night sky, and a soft grey-lilac band runs round the edges, painted like a frame. In the middle stands a head turned to the right, in profile. Klee built it from tiny strokes of white and pale green hatching that glimmer on the dark ground like chalk on a blackboard.
On the head sits a tall, rounded hat made of dense pale strokes, with a thin tassel hanging from its left side. The face has round blue eyes ringed in red and a reddish nose and mouth, so it looks more like a mask or a monkey’s face than a human one.
Heavenly bodies float around the head. At the top left is a blue moon or planet, at the top right a half-circle with a red arrow pointing down, at the lower left a small pale moon beside a red half-circle, and at the lower right a yellow cone. On the left a tiny star sparkles, and below it Klee wrote his name in red.
What does the title mean?
The title joins astrology, which reads fate in the positions of stars and planets, with fantasy. So the portrait shows no real person but an invented face set among signs of the sky, as if it had been drawn into a horoscope.
What the moon, the arrow or the cone stand for, our sources do not explain, and none of the signs can be tied with certainty to a particular constellation. What you can see is a head at the centre with heavenly shapes circling it like planets round the Sun.
The face with its red-ringed blue eyes looks serious and comic at once. Klee’s biography notes his dry humour and his sometimes childlike way of seeing, and here the two meet in a figure that is half human, half mask.
Why does this painting stay in the mind?
The black ground and the pale hatching make the scene look as if it had been scratched into a dark surface. Its few colours, the blue moon, the red arrows and the yellow cone, glow because darkness surrounds them.
The work dates from Klee’s Bauhaus years; he taught there from January 1921 to April 1931, alongside Wassily Kandinsky. Before that he belonged to the Blue Rider circle, and a trip to Tunisia in 1914 was his breakthrough in colour.
For more about the painter, there is a Wikipedia article on Paul Klee in English; it is about the artist, not about this work, which has no article of its own.
Where is the original, and how did it get there?
The original is held by The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York under inventory number 1984.315.39. Klee made it in gouache and ink on paper mounted on cardboard, and it measures only 37.8 x 27.9 cm (height x width), a little larger than a sheet of A4.
It entered the museum in 1984 with The Berggruen Klee Collection.
The same year, 1924, also produced Actor’s Mask, another face that is more mask than portrait.
Astrological Fantasy Portrait or another Klee?
This Paul Klee reproduction suits anyone who loves dark, mysterious walls and a night scattered with signs.
If Klee’s masks appeal to you, look at Mask of Fear, a big mask on four pairs of thin legs. Lovers of fine colour embroidery will enjoy Castle Garden, built from small dabs of colour, while the witty Equals Infinity writes out its own title with an equals sign and the sign of infinity.
All the famous Paul Klee paintings in our range are gathered on the Paul Klee page.
How do we hand-paint Astrological Fantasy Portrait?
Klee’s original is not an oil painting but a small sheet of paper worked in gouache and ink and mounted on cardboard. Ours is an oil painting reproduction on canvas: the painter works in oil or acrylic, in the size you choose, so it hangs on your wall like any other painting on a stretcher bar.
The painter first lays down the deep black ground and the pale grey-lilac border. Once it is dry, he builds up the hatching of the hat and face layer by layer with a fine brush, so that the thin strokes overlap and glimmer as they do on the original.
Last come the accents of colour: the blue eyes with their red rings, the reddish nose, the blue moon, the red half-circles with the arrow, the yellow cone and the star.
Which size fits which wall?
In short: 30 x 40 or 40 x 52 cm for a shelf or a narrow wall, 45 x 60 and 58 x 75 cm above a chest of drawers or a bed, 73 x 100 cm above a sofa, and 91 x 127, 105 x 145 or 136 x 180 cm for a large wall that needs a strong dark accent.
We paint it in 8 upright sizes (width x height): 30 x 40, 40 x 52, 45 x 60, 58 x 75, 73 x 100, 91 x 127, 105 x 145 and 136 x 180 cm. The original sheet measures 27.9 x 37.8 cm (width x height), so even our smallest size enlarges it slightly and the largest is almost five times as wide.
As a painting for the living room it works best at 73 x 100 or 91 x 127 cm, where the dark field with its floating planets calms a light wall.
Can I have another size or a frame?
Yes. If you need different proportions, the head and all the heavenly bodies stay whole, and only the black ground and the grey border are widened or narrowed. Tell us the width and height you want, and we will come back with a price and a date.
The portrait travels rolled, on a stretcher bar or framed; our workshop in Slovenia stretches, frames and packs every canvas painting. The 3D app where you pick the moulding is for that choice only, and a view of the portrait on your own wall is a separate service.
A slim black or dark grey frame suits the black ground, a silvery moulding the grey border.
When will the painting arrive?
Once you confirm, the starry head is ready to ship within 15 to 45 working days. Before packing we send you a photograph of the finished painting and, if you wish, make changes.
A parcel with the portrait pays no customs duty within Slovenia and the EU, and our returns policy covers the order.
The head beneath the stars makes a special gift for a lover of astrology, for a birthday or a new home. If you are unsure which size will suit, give a gift voucher and let the recipient choose.
Frequently asked questions
Where is the original kept?
At The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, under inventory number 1984.315.39.
What exactly does it show?
A head in profile with a tall hat, blue eyes ringed in red, and heavenly bodies on a black ground.
Is it a print?
No. It is a hand-painted copy, made with brushes on canvas in oil or acrylic.
How big is the original?
It measures 37.8 x 27.9 cm (height x width); our sizes go up to 136 x 180 cm.
Can I order a size that is not listed?
Yes. Tell us the width and height, and we will send you an offer.
How long will I wait for it?
Making it takes 15 to 45 working days, and you receive a photograph before dispatch.
Would the portrait suit a bedroom, or a birthday present?
Yes. The dark night sky feels calm, and as a gift it pleases anyone who likes reading a horoscope.
Do the signs match real constellations?
Our sources do not confirm that; the moon, half-circles, arrow and cone are Klee’s own heavenly shapes with no known reading.
- Subject: a head in profile with a tall hat and blue eyes, surrounded by a moon, a planet, half-circles, an arrow, a cone and a star on a black ground.
- Original: gouache and ink on paper mounted on cardboard, 1924, 37.8 x 27.9 cm, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
- Ours: painted by hand in oil or acrylic on canvas, 8 sizes from 30 x 40 to 136 x 180 cm, or made to measure.
- Worth knowing: Klee made it during his Bauhaus years; it came to the museum in 1984 with The Berggruen Klee Collection.
