Description
Tropical Gardening is a painting by Paul Klee from 1923: a long strip of glowing orange-red in a blue-green border, crossed by a pale winding band lined with palms, seedlings in rows, a sun-like flower and a ladder-like frame, all in fine black lines. The original, a small watercolour on paper mounted on cardboard, 56.5 cm wide and only 24.5 cm high, belongs to the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York. Our painter paints it by hand on canvas, in oil or acrylic, in 7 wide landscape sizes from 60 x 25 to 200 x 80 cm or made to measure. When your tropical garden is finished, we send you a photograph of it before it is packed.
| Title: | Tropical Gardening |
| Other titles: | Tropische Gartenkultur (German title) · Giardinaggio tropicale (Italian title) |
| Painter: | Paul Klee (1879–1940) |
| Year painted: | 1923 |
| Original size: | 24.5 cm x 56.5 cm (height x width) |
| Original technique: | Watercolour on paper on cardboard |
| Painting style: | Modernism |
| Located at: | Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, USA |
| Our reproduction: | Hand-painted in oil or acrylic on canvas, 7 sizes or made to measure |
Tropical Gardening – Paul Klee
What does Tropical Gardening show?
More than twice as wide as it is tall, the sheet reads like a landscape, left to right. Its warm, see-through orange-red wash darkens at the top into a grey shadow, like a sultry sky over a hot garden.
Through the middle winds a pale, wavy band that suggests a path, a pipe or a long flower bed. Along it stand tiny things drawn with a thin black line: on the left a round, pale flower with spiky petals on a tall stalk, like a little sun; right of centre a palm with a fan of fronds on a vase-shaped trunk; and between them slender plants like young firs or ferns.
On the right the plants stand in straight rows as in a nursery, and above them rises a structure like a ladder or a flight of steps. In the top right corner hangs a pale sun, a small circle with a dot in the middle. At the lower left the pale pipe curls round and ends in a tiny forked tip, as if a snake were flicking its tongue. The whole thing looks like a hothouse somewhere in the tropics.
What does the title Tropical Gardening mean?
Klee’s German title speaks of cultivating a garden in hot countries. The sheet holds all that gardening needs: seedlings in rows, a palm, a flower, paths and something that could be a support, a ladder or a gate.
Our sources record no interpretation of this work, so we stay with what can be seen. Some find a playful garden plan in it, others a glimpse into a hothouse, others a dream landscape where plants sprout from pipes.
In 1914 Klee travelled to Tunisia with August Macke and Louis Moilliet, a trip English Wikipedia calls his breakthrough in colour. Whether it echoes in this hot garden, the sources do not say.
Why does this garden hold the eye?
It is simple and full of small discoveries at once. From across the room you see a glowing orange field under a dark cloud; up close, palms, seedlings, little wheels, grids and steps appear, drawn with dry humour.
Klee was a Swiss-born German artist, touched by expressionism, cubism and surrealism, yet entirely his own. A violinist since childhood, he drew in a way Rilke likened to transcribed music, and here the plants do stand along the winding band like notes on a stave.
The Wikipedia article on Paul Klee, in English, covers the painter, since this watercolour has no article of its own.
Where is the original kept, and how big is it?
The original belongs to the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York, inventory number 37.509. Klee painted it in 1923, midway through his Bauhaus years, when he taught there beside Wassily Kandinsky (January 1921 to April 1931).
It is a watercolour on paper mounted on cardboard, 24.5 x 56.5 cm (height x width) according to the museum: a long, low strip of a sheet.
The same collection holds Horizon, Zenith and Atmosphere from 1925, a misty work in beige and grey where fine rays spread from a tiny red dot. Both come from the Bauhaus years, yet in mood they are opposites: cool stillness there, a hot garden here.
Tropical Gardening or another Klee?
Tropical Gardening is a canvas painting for a long, low wall, filling the band above a sofa, bed or desk where an upright work would look lost.
For a small, playful figure, see Jumping Jack (1919), a pencil-line puppet on a pinkish-red wash. For crystalline geometry there is The Idea of Firs (1917), and for theatre Introducing the Miracle (1916), with masked figures on a stage of coloured triangles.
All the famous Paul Klee paintings we paint to order, from the tropical garden to puppets and crystalline firs, are gathered on our Paul Klee page.
How do we hand-paint Tropical Gardening on canvas?
Klee’s original is a small watercolour on paper, just over 56 cm wide. 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 rather than like a sheet of paper behind glass.
Since watercolour is transparent and oil or acrylic denser, he thins the paint and lays the ground in several glazes, so the orange glows and the dark cloud melts softly into the red. Then, with a fine brush, he draws the band, palms, seedlings, steps and sun line by line, keeping them light and slightly trembling, as in the original.
Which size suits which wall?
In short: 60 x 25 or 100 x 40 cm above a desk, 110 x 47 and 130 x 54 cm above a bed or chest of drawers, 150 x 60 cm above a sofa, and 170 x 70 or 200 x 80 cm above a long corner sofa or on a broad dining-room wall.
We paint Tropical Gardening in 7 wide landscape sizes (width x height): 60 x 25, 100 x 40, 110 x 47, 130 x 54, 150 x 60, 170 x 70 and 200 x 80 cm, each about 2.5 times as wide as tall. Klee’s sheet measures 56.5 x 24.5 cm (width x height), so even the smallest size is a little larger than the paper, and the largest takes it to more than three times its width.
As a painting for the living room it looks best at 150 x 60 or 170 x 70 cm, where the long line of the garden follows the sofa’s backrest. Being low, it also fits above a headboard or sideboard without covering a window.
Can I order a custom size and a frame?
Yes. For a longer or taller wall we adapt the composition so the garden stays whole and only the orange ground above and below the band changes. Tell us your wall’s measurements and we will quote a price and a date for this garden.
Your tropical garden can travel rolled, on a stretcher bar or in a frame; our workshop in Slovenia does the stretching and framing. You choose the frame in our 3D app, where you pick the moulding only; seeing the painting on your own wall is a separate service.
When will it arrive, and does it make a good gift?
Work starts once you confirm the order, and the garden is ready to ship within 15 to 45 working days. Before packing you get a photograph of the finished painting, and we make any change you ask for.
Within Slovenia and across the EU the tropical garden travels without customs duties, and every order is covered by our returns policy.
It makes a lovely present for gardeners, lovers of houseplants or modern art, or a couple moving house. If you do not know their wall, give a wall art voucher and let them choose.
Frequently asked questions
Where can I see the original watercolour?
In the collection of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York, under inventory number 37.509.
What is painted in this garden?
A pale winding band with a palm, seedlings in rows, a sun-like flower, steps and a pale sun on an orange-red ground.
Will I get a printed poster?
No. You receive a hand-painted copy that the painter makes with brushes on canvas, in oil or acrylic.
How large is Klee’s sheet?
It measures 24.5 x 56.5 cm (height x width); our sizes go up to 200 x 80 cm (width x height).
Can I order a width that is not on the list?
Of course. Send us the width and height you want, and we will give you a price and a date.
How long will I wait for the tropical garden?
Allow 15 to 45 working days; a photograph of your finished tropical garden reaches you before dispatch.
Does it suit a bedroom or a living room?
Both: the low, wide shape sits well above a bed or a sofa, and the warm orange makes a room cosy.
What does Klee’s German title mean?
Gardening in the tropics; our sources record no further interpretation of the work.
- Subject: small palms, seedlings, a flower and steps along a winding band on a glowing orange-red ground with a blue-green border.
- Original: watercolour on paper mounted on cardboard, 1923, 24.5 x 56.5 cm, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York.
- Ours: a Paul Klee reproduction painted by hand in oil or acrylic on canvas, 7 wide sizes from 60 x 25 to 200 x 80 cm, or made to measure.
- Worth knowing: a low, wide format for the space above a sofa, chest of drawers or bed; painted during Klee’s Bauhaus years.
