Description
The Hour Before One Night is a painting by Paul Klee from 1940, the year he died, and one of his very last works: thick, rough black bars run across a white sheet like scaffolding, window frames or a fence, and between them glow blocks of vermilion red, sky blue and warm grey. The original is gouache on paper mounted on cardboard, about 45 x 60 cm, and it 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 8 landscape sizes from 45 x 30 to 196 x 137 cm or made to measure. You get a photograph of the finished painting before it ships.
| Title: | The Hour Before One Night |
| Other titles: | Die Stunde vor einer Nacht (German title) · Ura pred nočjo (Slovene title) |
| Painter: | Paul Klee (1879–1940) |
| Year painted: | 1940 |
| Original size: | 44.5 cm x 59.7 cm (height x width) |
| Original technique: | Gouache on paper mounted on cardboard |
| Painting style: | Modernism |
| Located at: | The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, United States |
| Our reproduction: | Hand-painted in oil or acrylic on canvas, 8 sizes or made to measure |
The Hour Before One Night – Paul Klee
What does The Hour Before One Night show?
A net of broad black brushstrokes covers the whole sheet. Some stand upright, others lie flat or lean to one side, as if someone had knocked together scaffolding, a window with glazing bars or a wooden fence in a hurry. The brush ran nearly dry in places, so the edges fray.
Between the bars sit fields of pure colour. The strongest is vermilion red, which fills four tall fields from the left edge across to the right. Beside it lies sky blue, spreading at the top like a patch of sky, and a warm grey that calms the middle.
In the red field on the left sit two round dark dots, and at the top centre a small black blot hangs above a fork-like shape. At the margins the paint stops short, leaving an uneven band of white paper all round. At the upper left Klee’s name is written in a thin line. The whole feels strong and rhythmic, almost like a stained-glass window at dusk.
What does the title tell us?
The title names only a moment: an hour that comes before a night. There are no people, no houses and no sky in the usual sense, so the title is the only clue the work gives. What happens in that hour, Klee does not explain.
The year matters. Klee died on 29 June 1940, so this sheet is among his last works. In his late years he painted with thick, bar-like black signs, and this gouache is one of them.
Why does this late sheet hold the eye?
Klee was a Swiss-born German artist, shaped by expressionism, cubism and surrealism. Late in life his stroke became broad, black and decisive.
A comparison helps: Deep Pathos from 1915 is a dense patchwork of small rectangles full of crosses and dots, whereas here a few large bars and a few large fields carry the entire sheet.
He played the violin from childhood, in an orchestra as well, and Rilke felt that his drawings read like music set down in line. Here you can almost hear it: the black bars run like measures, and the red fields land on them like strong beats.
For more on the painter, see the Wikipedia article on Paul Klee; it is in English and is about the artist, as this work has no article of its own.
Where is the original, and what is it made of?
The original belongs to The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, where it carries inventory number 1984.315.62. It came to the museum in 1984 as part of The Berggruen Klee Collection.
It is gouache on paper mounted on cardboard. The museum gives the sheet as 44.5 x 59.7 cm (height x width), so roughly 45 x 60 cm. Gouache is an opaque water-based paint, which is why the fields look so full and dense.
Born in 1879 at Münchenbuchsee, close to Bern, Klee taught at the Bauhaus from 1921 to 1931 beside Wassily Kandinsky and then at the Düsseldorf Academy until 1933. In 1937 the Nazis showed seventeen of his works in the “Degenerate art” exhibition and seized 102 from public collections. He left more than 9,000 works.
The Hour Before One Night or another Klee?
The Hour Before One Night is a canvas painting for anyone who loves decisive colour and a clear structure.
The same museum holds other works we paint. Playful is The Barbed Noose with the Mice, where four small mice run around a knotted ribbon. Gentle and almost story-like is Episode Before an Arab Town, with fine lines on a pink ground, and for a quiet wall there is Clarification from 1932, scattered with tiny dots.
Our Paul Klee page gathers all the famous Paul Klee paintings you can order from us.
How do we hand-paint The Hour Before One Night on canvas?
Klee’s original is not an oil painting but gouache on paper mounted on cardboard. Ours is an oil painting reproduction made on canvas, in oil or acrylic and in the size you choose, so it hangs on your wall like any other painted work.
First the painter lays a light ground in place of the white paper and marks where the bars stand. Then he brushes in the red, blue and grey fields with quick upright strokes, leaving the brush marks visible. The black bars come last, with a wide brush and little paint, so their edges stay as rough as Klee’s.
Finally he adds the two dark dots in the left-hand red field and lets the paint run out unevenly into the light ground at the margins.
Which size fits which wall?
In short: 45 x 30 or 56 x 40 cm for a shelf or a narrow wall, 63 x 45 and 83 x 57 cm above a chest of drawers or a desk, 105 x 75 cm above a sofa, and 140 x 92, 150 x 108 or 196 x 137 cm for a large wall in the living or dining room.
We paint The Hour Before One Night in 8 landscape sizes (width x height): 45 x 30, 56 x 40, 63 x 45, 83 x 57, 105 x 75, 140 x 92, 150 x 108 and 196 x 137 cm. Klee’s sheet measures about 60 x 45 cm (width x height): the two smallest sizes are smaller, all the others enlarge it, the largest to more than three times its width.
As a painting for the living room it is strongest at 140 x 92 or 150 x 108 cm above the sofa, where the red brings warmth and the blue freshness. For an office or a hallway, 83 x 57 cm is enough.
Can I order a custom size, and which frame suits it?
Yes. If you need other proportions, we keep the framework of black bars whole and widen or narrow only the light margin. That way the painting keeps the rhythm of its red and blue fields. Tell us your custom size and we will come back with a price and a date.
It can come to you rolled, stretched on a stretcher bar or framed. Our workshop in Slovenia does the stretching and framing and fits every hand-painted canvas with its stretcher or moulding.
You choose the frame in our 3D app, which is only for picking the moulding; viewing the painting on your own wall is a separate service.
When will the painting arrive?
Making it takes 15 to 45 working days from your order confirmation. Before packing, we send you a photograph of the finished painting, and any change you ask for is made.
Parcels to Slovenia and other EU countries pay no customs duty, and our returns policy covers every order.
With its lively colours it makes a fine gift for a new home, an office or a friend of modern art. If you are unsure which size would suit, give a gift voucher and let the recipient choose.
Frequently asked questions
Which museum owns the original?
The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, inventory number 1984.315.62.
What is painted on the sheet?
A framework of thick black bars, with fields of vermilion red, sky blue and grey between them.
Will I get a print?
No. You get a hand-painted copy, made with brushes on canvas by our painter in oil or acrylic.
How big is Klee’s sheet?
About 45 x 60 cm (height x width); our sizes go up to 196 x 137 cm.
Is there a size beyond the list?
Yes. Tell us the width and height, and we will send an offer with a price and a date.
How long will I wait for the painting?
From 15 to 45 working days, and before dispatch you get a photograph.
Does it suit a living room, an office or a gift?
Yes. The strong colours lift a living space or an office, and as a gift it pleases anyone who likes modern art.
When did Klee paint this sheet?
In 1940, the year of his death; it is among his last works.
- Subject: a framework of thick black bars with fields of vermilion red, sky blue and warm grey on a white sheet.
- Original: gouache on paper mounted on cardboard, 1940, 44.5 x 59.7 cm, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
- Ours: painted by hand on canvas in oil or acrylic, a Paul Klee reproduction in 8 landscape sizes from 45 x 30 to 196 x 137 cm, or made to measure.
- Worth knowing: Klee painted the sheet in the year he died; it is one of his last works.
