Description
Hammamet with Its Mosque is a small watercolour by Paul Klee from 1914: above soft fields of pink, white and terracotta rise a violet and blue minaret and a pink tower with dark windows, with a strip of green and red garden between them. Klee painted it in Tunisia in April 1914; the original, only 23.8 x 22.2 cm, belongs to The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Our painter recreates it by hand on canvas in oil or acrylic, in 8 nearly square sizes from 40 x 41 to 190 x 200 cm or made to measure, and you get a photograph of the finished painting before dispatch.
| Title: | Hammamet with Its Mosque |
| Other titles: | Hammamet mit der Moschee (Klee’s German inscription) · Hammamet con la moschea (Italian title) |
| Painter: | Paul Klee (1879–1940) |
| Year painted: | 1914 |
| Original size: | 23.8 cm x 22.2 cm (height x width) |
| Original technique: | Watercolour and graphite on paper 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 |
Hammamet with Its Mosque – Paul Klee
What does Hammamet with Its Mosque show?
Near the top centre stands a tall pale violet tower, ringed by a band of strong blue and crowned with a slim grey tip; the title tells us it is the minaret of the mosque. To the right, a shorter pink tower has dark, rounded windows, with low brown walls and a row of violet dots beside it.
Across the middle runs a strip of garden: green dabs for leaves and, beneath them, rows of dark red spots that may be shrubs or earth. Below it the view opens into large, soft patches of pink, white and lilac, laid side by side like a patchwork quilt. Klee draws no street or square; he turns the ground into colour.
The lower half grows warmer. A red roof slope cuts in from the right, terracotta fills the bottom edge, and at lower right small yellow flowers spread over a pale field edged with violet. Tufts of blue-green plants sprout on the left and in the centre, and Klee signed the sheet with a small “Klee” at top left.
Where was it painted, and what is its story?
In April 1914 Klee spent twelve days in Tunisia with the painters August Macke and Louis Moilliet, and Hammamet, a town on the Tunisian coast, was one of their stops. He saw the journey as his breakthrough in colour: the light there struck him deeply, and colour, long pursued, now felt like his own.
The title comes from Klee’s own German inscription below the sheet, beside the year 1914 and the number 199; our photograph shows the painted sheet only.
According to the English Wikipedia article on Klee, the watercolours of this trip did not set out to copy nature; drawing on Cézanne and Robert Delaunay, the three painters built their compositions on the way nature itself forms things. In Hammamet, houses, garden and ground all become patches of colour set side by side.
Why do people love this watercolour?
It captures the moment Klee himself named as the turning point in his work with colour. Pink, violet, blue and red sit freely side by side, and the bare paper between them turns into light.
Back home, the article says, the coloured rectangle became Klee’s basic building block, joined with others into harmonies that scholars compare to music. Here you can already sense it: the lower half is nearly a grid of soft fields, while the towers above still say where you are.
For the painter himself, see the Wikipedia article about Paul Klee (in English); this work has no article of its own.
Where is the original kept, and how large is it?
The original is in The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, under accession number 1984.315.4. It is watercolour and graphite on paper, mounted on cardboard, and it measures a mere 23.8 x 22.2 cm (height x width).
Born in 1879 at Münchenbuchsee, just outside Bern, to a German music teacher and a Swiss singer, Klee had already joined the Blaue Reiter circle around Kandinsky and Franz Marc; he later taught at the Bauhaus (1921 to 1931) and the Düsseldorf Academy (until 1933), and left more than 9,000 works, when he died in 1940.
Another Tunisian landscape on our shelf is St. Germain near Tunis, named after a place close to the capital.
Hammamet with Its Mosque or another Klee?
Pick this one for light and warmth rather than a riddle: a canvas painting full of sun, pink, red and violet under a quiet blue, that brightens a room without shouting.
If Tunisia is what draws you, look at Episode at Kairouan, named after another Tunisian city. If you like a single building at the heart of a scene, there is Villa R, and for bold geometry with a glowing sun, Castle and Sun.
Every work on our Paul Klee page is painted to order; among those famous Paul Klee paintings, this is one of the sunniest.
How do we hand-paint Hammamet with Its Mosque on canvas?
Let us be plain: the original is a small watercolour with pencil on paper. Ours is painted by hand on canvas in oil or acrylic, in the size you choose, so it hangs and lasts like any painting and can be stretched and framed.
To keep the watercolour feel, the painter starts on a light ground and works in thin, diluted layers, so the pale tone shines through the pink and violet as Klee’s paper does. Edges stay soft and a little uneven.
He places the towers, the garden line and the roof first, then the large fields, and last the dots, green dabs, yellow flowers, plants and signature. Call it an oil painting reproduction or a hand-painted watercolour copy: either way, the light of a small sheet reaches a wall-sized canvas.
Which size suits your wall?
The quick answer: 40 x 41 and 45 x 50 cm for a bedside wall or a hallway; 59 x 65 and 77 x 85 cm over a desk, a dresser or a headboard; 100 x 105 cm above a sofa; 125 x 140, 145 x 160 and 190 x 200 cm for a big open wall, a stairwell or a dining room.
All 8 sizes (width x height) are nearly square: 40 x 41, 45 x 50, 59 x 65, 77 x 85, 100 x 105, 125 x 140, 145 x 160 and 190 x 200 cm. Klee’s sheet is only 22.2 x 23.8 cm (width x height), so every one of our sizes enlarges it; at 190 x 200 cm the minaret stands more than eight times taller than on the paper in New York.
The soft fields lose nothing when enlarged. As a painting for the living room, 100 x 105 or 125 x 140 cm above a sofa brings in warm pink and terracotta; in a bedroom, the sizes up to 77 x 85 cm feel calm and light.
Can I order another size or a frame?
Yes. For a slightly different shape we keep the towers, the garden line and the flowered corner whole and adjust only the soft edges. Send us your own measurements for a price and a delivery time.
It can reach you rolled in a tube, stretched on a stretcher bar, or framed and ready to hang; the stretching and framing happen in our own workshop in Slovenia. You choose the frame in our 3D app, which is only for picking the moulding; a view of the painting on your own wall is a separate service.
When will my painting arrive?
Your painting is ready to ship 15 to 45 working days after you order. Before we pack it, we send you a photograph of the finished painting, and if you would like a change, the painter makes it.
Within Slovenia and across the EU there are no customs duties to pay, and our returns policy covers every order.
A sunny Tunisian town makes a warm present for a wedding or a housewarming. Unsure of the size? A wall art voucher lets them choose.
Questions buyers ask
Which museum holds the original?
The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, accession number 1984.315.4.
What do I see in this work?
A violet and blue minaret, a pink tower, a garden strip, soft pink fields, a red roof and yellow flowers.
Will I receive a print?
No. You receive a hand-painted copy: our painter brushes every field of colour onto canvas in oil or acrylic.
How big is Klee’s sheet?
23.8 x 22.2 cm (height x width); our sizes enlarge it up to 190 x 200 cm.
Is a size outside the list possible?
Yes. Give us the width and height you have in mind and we will come back with a price and a date.
How long until it is delivered?
Ready to ship in 15 to 45 working days, after you have seen it in a photograph.
Does it suit a bedroom, or make a good gift?
Yes. Its soft pinks are restful in a bedroom, and it suits anyone who loves travel or the Mediterranean.
Where is Hammamet?
Hammamet is a town on the coast of Tunisia, which Klee visited in April 1914 with August Macke and Louis Moilliet.
- Subject: a minaret, a pink tower, a garden strip and soft fields of pink, white and terracotta in Tunisian light.
- Original: watercolour and graphite on paper on cardboard, 1914, 23.8 x 22.2 cm, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
- Ours: a Paul Klee reproduction painted by hand on canvas in oil or acrylic; 8 nearly square sizes from 40 x 41 to 190 x 200 cm, or made to measure.
- Good to know: painted on the April 1914 journey that Klee saw as his breakthrough in colour.
