Description
Twittering Machine is a small, playful drawing with a hint of menace, made by Paul Klee in 1922: four birds of thin line stand on a wavy wire that ends at the right in a hand-crank, as if someone had to wind them up to make them sing. The original, a watercolour on a sheet of paper only about 41 cm high, belongs to the Museum of Modern Art in New York. We paint it for you by hand on canvas, in oil or acrylic, in 8 portrait sizes from 30 x 40 to 84 x 110 cm or made to measure, and a photograph of your finished painting reaches you before dispatch.
| Title: | Twittering Machine |
| Other titles: | Die Zwitscher-Maschine · La macchina cinguettante |
| Painter: | Paul Klee (1879–1940) |
| Year painted: | 1922 |
| Original size: | about 41.3 cm x 30.5 cm (height x width, sheet) |
| Original technique: | Watercolour, gouache, pen and ink and oil transfer on paper |
| Painting style: | Modernism |
| Located at: | Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York |
| Our reproduction: | Hand-painted in oil or acrylic on canvas, 8 sizes or made to measure |
Twittering Machine – Paul Klee
What does Twittering Machine show?
A horizontal wire runs across the middle of the sheet and sags between its supports like a wavy branch. Four birds stand on it, drawn in pen and ink with thin legs, springy necks and big round eyes. Each has its beak open, and something sticks out of every one, usually read as a tongue.
The bird on the left is the tallest and carries a dark drop above its head that looks like an exclamation mark. The second hangs its head as if worn out, the third has a neck coiled into a spiral and looks upwards, and the fourth pushes a long, pointed tongue out to the right like an arrow. At the right, the wire bends down into a crank.
Below the birds stands a low pink platform, like a little table on thin legs, and on the left a rod rises with a white sign shaped like a bow tie. The ground is misty blue, pink below and violet above. A painted grey-blue border runs all round, and at the top right the German title is written in pencil.
What does Twittering Machine mean?
Readings differ widely. The work joins a living creature to a device: birds sing of their own accord, yet here they are fixed to a bar driven by a crank. The historian Werckmeister saw in this Klee’s interest in the equation between animal and machine.
In 1941 the Hartford Courant saw a joke in it, comparing it to the nonsense verse of Lewis Carroll. The Museum of Modern Art points to a darker side: the birds look like deformations of nature, and the machine might be a music box whose racket lures victims into the pit below it.
In 1987 the critic Kay Larson, writing in New York magazine, saw the birds as the artist forced to sing on command among people with no feeling for art. The philosopher Arthur Danto proposed the opposite: perhaps the machine has been abandoned, and the birds simply use it as a perch and sing for themselves.
Why is Twittering Machine so famous?
Klee made more than 9,000 works in his lifetime, and this sheet is among the best known. It is also one of the most famous images at the Museum of Modern Art.
Klee was the son of a music teacher and played the violin from childhood, so it is no surprise that a work about birdsong has drawn composers. According to English Wikipedia, more than a hundred compositions had been written after it by 2018.
If you want more on the readings and the music, the Wikipedia article on Twittering Machine, in English, gathers them in one place.
Where is the original, and how did it get there?
Klee finished the sheet in 1922, when he had been teaching at the Bauhaus in Germany for a year. For several years it was shown at the Alte Nationalgalerie in Berlin.
In 1933 the Nazis declared it “degenerate art”, along with many other works by Klee, and seized it. Six years later they sold it to an art dealer in Berlin, and the Museum of Modern Art in New York bought it that same year. It is still there, under accession number 564.1939.
The original is small: the sheet measures about 41.3 x 30.5 cm, roughly A3.
Twittering Machine or another Klee?
Twittering Machine is a canvas painting for anyone who likes humour with a second layer: playful at first glance, a little mysterious the longer you look.
From the same year, 1922, come Senecio, a round face built from warm patches of colour, and Red Balloon, where a red sphere floats above little houses made of squares. If you prefer a darker ground and more colour, look at Fish Magic of 1925.
Browse the full set of famous Paul Klee paintings our painters make to order on our Paul Klee page.
How do we hand-paint Twittering Machine on canvas?
To be clear: the original is not an oil painting but a small sheet of paper on which Klee combined watercolour, gouache, pen drawing and oil transfer. Oil transfer was a method Klee invented himself; Angelus Novus of 1920 was made the same way.
What you receive is a Paul Klee reproduction painted by hand on canvas, in oil or acrylic as agreed, layer by layer. First the painter lays in the transparent blue ground and the shifts towards pink and violet, then he draws the wire, the birds and the crank with a fine brush, and finally the painted border around the sheet.
Which size suits which wall?
In short: the small sizes for a child’s room or a desk corner, 58 x 75 and 66 x 87 cm above a chest of drawers or a bed, and 73 x 100 or 84 x 110 cm for the main wall of a living space.
We paint it in 8 portrait sizes (width x height): 30 x 40, 33 x 46, 40 x 52, 45 x 60, 58 x 75, 66 x 87, 73 x 100 and 84 x 110 cm. Klee’s sheet is about 30.5 x 41.3 cm (width x height), so most of our sizes clearly enlarge it; the largest is more than two and a half times as tall as the original.
As a painting for the living room it works best above a sofa at 73 x 100 or 84 x 110 cm. Since it was often hung in children’s rooms, it suits one well, for example at 40 x 52 or 45 x 60 cm above a desk or a bed.
Can I order a different size or a frame?
You can. If your wall needs a different width or height, we adjust the composition so that all four birds, the wire and the crank stay whole; only the amount of blue changes. Send us your own size and we will reply with a price and a delivery time.
You can have the painting rolled in a tube, stretched on a stretcher bar or framed. Our workshop in Slovenia stretches and frames it, and every painting we sell sets off from there. The frame is picked in our 3D app, which only handles the choice of moulding; viewing the painting on your own wall is a separate service.
A slim white or pale grey moulding suits the soft blue; for more warmth, choose light oak.
When will my painting arrive?
Work begins the day you confirm your order, and your Twittering Machine is ready to ship within 15 to 45 working days. Before we pack it, we send you a photograph of the finished painting; if you want anything changed, we do it before dispatch.
Delivery inside the EU, Slovenia included, carries no customs duties, and our returns policy applies to every order.
This oil painting reproduction makes a fine gift for music lovers or for a child’s room. Not sure about their wall? With a wall art voucher, the recipient picks the size and the painting.
Frequently asked questions
Where can I see the original?
At the Museum of Modern Art in New York, which bought it in 1939.
What are the birds on the wire doing?
The four open-beaked birds are fixed to a wire with a crank, like parts of a singing device.
Is it a print?
No. Our painter applies every line with a brush, and you receive a hand-painted copy in oil or acrylic on canvas.
How big is Klee’s sheet?
About 41.3 x 30.5 cm (height x width), smaller than most of our sizes.
Can you paint a size that is not listed?
Yes. Send us the width and height you need, and we will quote a price and a date.
How long do painting and delivery take?
The painting is ready in 15 to 45 working days, and you receive a photograph of it before dispatch.
Would it suit a child’s room, or work as a gift?
Yes. New York magazine reported that it often hung in children’s rooms, and as a gift it pleases music lovers in particular.
What does the title mean?
The birds twitter, yet they are hooked up to a machine with a crank; readings range from a joke to a bitter parable about the artist.
- Subject: four line-drawn birds on a wavy wire with a crank, against a blue ground shading to pink and violet.
- Original: watercolour, gouache, pen and ink and oil transfer on paper, 1922, about 41.3 x 30.5 cm, Museum of Modern Art, New York.
- Ours: painted by hand in oil or acrylic on canvas, 8 portrait sizes from 30 x 40 to 84 x 110 cm, or made to measure.
- Worth knowing: the Nazis declared it “degenerate art” in 1933; it has inspired more than a hundred pieces of music.
