Paul Klee – Clarification

Clarification is a painting by Paul Klee from 1932: the whole canvas is covered with rows of tiny dots in grey-blue and rust, and beneath them soft fields of pale rose, lilac, peach and light blue melt into one another; thin brown lines draw stepped rectangles, and at the upper right a slim green crescent moon shines. The original is in oil on canvas, 70.5 x 96.2 cm, and belongs to The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Our painter paints it for you by hand on canvas, in oil or acrylic, in 4 landscape sizes from 101 x 74 to 196 x 137 cm or made to measure. Before dispatch we send you a photograph of your finished Clarification.

Clarification – Paul Klee

What does Clarification show?

The first impression is light. From edge to edge the canvas is sprinkled with tiny dots that run in horizontal rows, like the stitches of a seam or rain held still in the air. The dots are grey-blue and rust, and beneath them fields of pale rose, lilac, peach and light blue blend softly together.

Thin brown lines run across this weave of dots. They outline rectangles that sit inside and beside one another and step down like stairs from the upper left towards the lower right. You can read them as walls, terraces or the floor plan of a building.

A rectangle at the top centre glows warmer, in ochre; just below it to the right lies a field of dense red dots, and at the lower right a larger peach-coloured area spreads out. A slim green crescent moon hangs at the upper right, the only curve in the painting, while on the left a short brown bar lies on its own, touching no other line. In the far upper right corner Klee’s name is written small.

What does the title Clarification mean?

The title is a single word, and it describes a process: something unclear becomes clear. What exactly is being clarified the painting does not say, so every viewer finds an answer of their own.

One possible reading: the dots quiver like air above a landscape in the early morning, and the thin lines bring order to that flicker, as if houses and terraces were emerging from the haze.

Another way in is to look at the painting as music. Klee picked up the violin as a child and later played in an orchestra too, and Rilke felt that his drawings were like music transcribed into lines; here the rows of dots run like a steady pulse.

Why is Clarification so calming to look at?

The painting belongs to Klee’s dotted canvases of 1931 and 1932. The best known of them is Ad Parnassum of 1932, which English Wikipedia calls his masterpiece and the best example of his pointillist style. Clarification dates from the same year and is built the same way, dot by dot.

Klee usually worked in small formats, on paper, gauze or board. A canvas almost a metre wide is therefore a fairly large work for him, one in which the dots can breathe across the whole surface.

For more on the painter, the Paul Klee article on English Wikipedia (in English) is about the artist himself, not about this painting.

Where is the original, and where did it come from?

The original belongs to The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, where it carries accession number 1984.315.54. It entered the museum in 1984 as part of The Berggruen Klee Collection. It is an oil on canvas measuring 70.5 x 96.2 cm (height x width).

Klee painted it in 1932 in Düsseldorf, where he taught at the art academy from 1931 to 1933, after about ten years at the Bauhaus. In 1933 he lost his post, and at the end of that year the family moved to Switzerland.

Four years later, in 1937, the Nazi exhibition of so-called degenerate art showed seventeen of Klee’s pictures, and 102 of his works were seized from public collections. Klee died on 29 June 1940.

The same New York collection also holds The Hour Before One Night, a gouache of 1940 and one of his last works, in which thick black bars take the place of fine lines.

Clarification or another Klee?

Clarification is a canvas painting for rooms that need light and quiet: a bedroom, a reading corner, a home office or a bright open-plan space.

If you are after more glow, there is Deep Pathos from 1915, a dense mosaic of dark and radiant fields. For humour, look at Comedians’ Handbill with its black signs and tiny acrobats, and for a gentle face there is Girl in Mourning from 1939.

All the famous Paul Klee paintings we paint to order, Ad Parnassum among them, are gathered on our Paul Klee page.

How do we hand-paint Clarification on canvas?

Klee’s original is itself oil on canvas. Our oil painting reproduction is made on fresh canvas, in oil or acrylic, in the size you choose, layer by layer.

First the painter lays in thin, translucent fields of rose, lilac, peach and blue, then draws the brown lines of the stepped rectangles with a fine brush. Only when this ground is dry does he begin the dots: row by row, in a colour that changes from field to field.

The thousands of dots take most of the time, and the painter keeps the rows even but never mechanical. Last of all he adds the ochre rectangle, the green crescent and the short brown bar on the left.

Which size suits which wall?

In short: 101 x 74 cm above a chest of drawers, a desk or a bed, 130 x 91 cm above a sofa or a double bed, and 150 x 105 or 196 x 137 cm for a large wall in an open living area, a dining room or beside a staircase.

We paint Clarification in 4 landscape sizes (width x height): 101 x 74, 130 x 91, 150 x 105 and 196 x 137 cm. The original measures 96.2 x 70.5 cm (width x height), so even our smallest size is slightly larger, and the largest is about twice as wide.

We do not offer anything smaller, on purpose. The painting lives on thousands of tiny dots, and they need room: on a smaller canvas they would blur into a flat surface and the work would lose its air. As a painting for the living room it looks best at 150 x 105 cm above the sofa, where the light colours open up the space.

Can I order another size or a frame?

Yes. If your wall needs different proportions, we widen or narrow the dotted ground at the edges while the stepped rectangles and the crescent stay whole. Send us the measurements you need and we will quote a price and date for your Clarification.

Clarification leaves us rolled, stretched on a stretcher bar or already framed. Our workshop in Slovenia does the stretching and framing and prepares every piece so it reaches you safely.

The moulding itself is picked in our 3D app, which handles frame choice alone; seeing the painting on your own wall is a separate service.

When and how will the painting reach you?

Once you confirm the order, your Clarification is ready to ship within 15 to 45 working days. Before it leaves, you receive a photograph of the finished painting, and if you would like a change, we make it.

Within Slovenia and the EU the painting travels without customs duties, and every order is covered by our returns policy.

Clarification is a serene present for a new home or a wedding. If you do not know the wall, give a wall art voucher instead.

Frequently asked questions

Where is the original kept?

At The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, under accession number 1984.315.54.

What is painted on it?

Rows of tiny dots on pastel fields, brown lines of stepped rectangles, an ochre rectangle and a green crescent moon.

Is it a print?

No. It is a hand-painted copy: our painter sets every dot with a brush, in oil or acrylic on canvas.

How big is Klee’s original?

70.5 x 96.2 cm (height x width); our sizes run from 101 x 74 to 196 x 137 cm.

Why is there no size below 101 x 74 cm?

Because on a smaller canvas the thousands of dots would run together and the painting would lose its lightness.

Do you paint other proportions too?

Yes. Send us the width and height, and we will prepare an offer with a price and a date.

How long will I wait for it?

Usually 15 to 45 working days, and before dispatch a photograph of your finished dotted canvas reaches you.

Is it a good choice for a bedroom?

Very much so: the colours are soft and calm, and the dots give the wall a delicate, quiet texture.

• Subject: rows of tiny dots on rose, lilac, peach and blue fields, brown stepped rectangles and a green crescent moon.
• Original: oil on canvas, 1932, 70.5 x 96.2 cm, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
• Ours: a Paul Klee reproduction hand-painted in oil or acrylic on canvas, in 4 landscape sizes between 101 x 74 and 196 x 137 cm, or made to measure.
• Worth knowing: painted in Klee’s Düsseldorf years, the same year as the dotted Ad Parnassum.