Description
Rotating House is a painting by Paul Klee from 1921: a house with a pointed roof, cross-barred windows and a ladder-like stair, drawn in thin dark lines, is spinning, so its walls and rooms fan out in every direction around the centre. The original is gouache on gauze on paper, 37.7 x 52.2 cm, and it belongs to the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza in Madrid. Our painter paints it for you by hand on canvas, in oil or acrylic, in 8 landscape sizes from 40 x 30 to 200 x 148 cm or made to measure. Before dispatch we send you a photograph of your finished painting.
| Title: | Rotating House |
| Other titles: | Drehendes Haus (German title) · La casa girevole (Italian title) |
| Painter: | Paul Klee (1879–1940) |
| Year painted: | 1921 |
| Original size: | 37.7 cm x 52.2 cm (height x width) |
| Original technique: | Gouache on gauze on paper |
| Painting style: | Modernism |
| Located at: | Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid, Spain |
| Our reproduction: | Hand-painted in oil or acrylic on canvas, 8 sizes or made to measure |
Rotating House – Paul Klee
What does Rotating House show?
In the middle stands a house the way children draw one: four walls, a roof that rises to a single point and a few windows divided by a cross. The lines are thin, dark and slightly shaky, as if drawn with a pen nib.
But the house will not keep still. Wings and rooms swing open all around it: at the upper left a long annexe with a grid of windows that ends in a fan of fine strokes, at the upper right a gable with a window, on the right a broad wall with a four-pane window, at the lower left a small piece of wall with a window. Beneath the house two strips stretch out and end in a sunburst fan, and at the lower right a stair runs down to the edge like a ladder. It looks as if the house spun so fast that its walls flew apart.
The colours are warm. A glowing patch of orange and pale pink surrounds the house, a mottled ochre-yellow ground with olive shadows spreads around that, and towards the margins dark specks gather. The edge itself is darker and uneven, because the gauze Klee painted on shows there.
What does the title say, and how can you read the work?
The title tells you what is happening: the house is turning.
A house is the most familiar shape we know, a sign of shelter and permanence. Here it is set in motion: the walls open like the sails of a mill or the seats of a merry-go-round, the windows face every way at once and the stair hangs in the air.
The English article on Klee notes that his works often have a fragile, childlike quality and that his titles show a dry humour. Both meet on this sheet, which turns a solid building into a spinning top; the sources we use, however, record no explanation by Klee of this particular work.
What makes this house so special?
Klee builds movement out of a handful of straight lines.
Klee was a Swiss-born German artist who played the violin from childhood. In 1921, the very year of this sheet, Rilke wrote that his drawings were often transcriptions of music; in the rhythm of the walls repeating around the house you can sense a similar beat.
This work has no Wikipedia article of its own, so we point you to the English Wikipedia article on Paul Klee, written in English and devoted to the painter.
Where is the original kept, and what is it made of?
The original belongs to the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza in Madrid. Klee painted it in 1921, his first year at the Bauhaus, where he taught from January 1921 to April 1931; Wassily Kandinsky joined him there a year later.
The work is small, measuring 37.7 x 52.2 cm (height x width). Klee did not paint it on canvas but in gouache on gauze, which he mounted on paper.
A 1914 trip to Tunisia with August Macke and Louis Moilliet had already brought his breakthrough in colour. Later, in 1937, the Nazis put seventeen of his works in the “Degenerate art” show and seized 102 from public collections; he died in 1940.
Two years later, also at the Bauhaus, came Architecture, a town of soft colour rectangles with two towers.
Rotating House or another Klee?
Rotating House is a canvas painting for anyone who likes a warm, bright wall and a touch of humour.
If you enjoy Klee’s play with little houses, look at Oriental Pleasure Garden from 1925, where small white and pink cubes of houses stand among flowering bushes. If you want a quieter subject, there is Still Life with pots, fruit and an Easter egg, and for a gentle corner, Angel, Still Groping, a childlike angel from 1939.
All the famous Paul Klee paintings we offer open together from our Paul Klee page.
How do we hand-paint Rotating House on canvas?
Klee’s original is a small gouache on gauze mounted on paper. Ours is a Paul Klee 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.
First he fixes the centre and sketches the house with all the walls that open around it, because the spin has to feel balanced. Then he lays in the ochre ground, the glowing orange and pink patch and the olive shadows along the margins.
Short, lightly scrubbed strokes, laid layer by layer, recall the weave of the gauze; the dark specks and the thin lines of roof, windows and stair come last, with a fine brush.
Which size suits which wall?
In short: 40 x 30 or 50 x 35 cm for a shelf, a hallway or above a desk, 63 x 45 and 80 x 59 cm above a chest of drawers or a bed, 101 x 74 cm above a sofa, and 130 x 90, 160 x 115 or 200 x 148 cm for a large wall in a living or dining room.
We paint Rotating House in 8 landscape sizes (width x height): 40 x 30, 50 x 35, 63 x 45, 80 x 59, 101 x 74, 130 x 90, 160 x 115 and 200 x 148 cm. Klee’s sheet measures 52.2 x 37.7 cm (width x height). The two smallest sizes are therefore a little smaller, while from 63 x 45 cm upwards we enlarge the house; at 200 x 148 cm it is almost four times as wide as it is in Madrid.
As a painting for the living room it looks best at 101 x 74 or 130 x 90 cm above the sofa, where the warm orange and ochre bring warmth into the room.
Can I order a custom size, and which frame should I choose?
Yes. If your wall calls for other proportions, we keep the whole house in the centre and only widen or shorten the ochre ground at the margins. Write to us with your own measurements, and a quote with price and timing follows.
We ship it rolled, on a stretcher bar or in a frame, and our workshop in Slovenia does the stretching and framing. The 3D app on our site lets you pick a moulding and nothing more; a view of the painting on your own wall is a separate service.
Natural wood or a slim dark moulding that echoes the specks along the edge suits the warm ochre tones. Even without a frame, as an oil painting reproduction simply stretched on its bar, it looks light and modern.
When and how will the painting arrive?
Work begins once your order is confirmed, and your house leaves us after 15 to 45 working days. Before we pack it, we send you a photograph of your finished painting and make changes if you ask.
There are no customs duties within Slovenia and the rest of the EU, and every order is covered by our returns policy.
A house that spins is a cheerful present for a housewarming, an architect or anyone who is just moving. Not sure of their wall? Then a wall art voucher lets them pick the size themselves.
Frequently asked questions
Where can I see Klee’s original?
At the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza in Madrid, Spain.
What is in the picture?
A house with a pointed roof and cross-barred windows whose walls fan out around the centre, on an orange patch and an ochre ground.
Am I getting a print?
No, it is a hand-painted copy: the painter paints it with brushes on canvas, in oil or acrylic.
How big is Klee’s sheet?
It measures 37.7 x 52.2 cm (height x width); our sizes run from 40 x 30 to 200 x 148 cm.
Can I order a different size?
Yes. Tell us the width and height you need, and we will send you an offer.
How long will I wait for it?
Making it takes 15 to 45 working days, and before dispatch you receive a photograph.
Is a spinning house right for a bedroom, a lounge or a present?
Yes. The warm colours suit both rooms, and as a housewarming present a spinning house is a happy choice.
Why does the house seem to turn?
Because the walls, windows and stair open in every direction around one centre, like a merry-go-round.
- Subject: a house of thin dark lines whose walls fan out around the centre, on an orange and pink patch.
- Original: gouache on gauze on paper, 1921, 37.7 x 52.2 cm, Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid.
- Ours: painted by hand in oil or acrylic on canvas, 8 landscape sizes from 40 x 30 to 200 x 148 cm, or made to measure.
- Worth knowing: Klee painted it in his first year of teaching at the Bauhaus.
