Portrait Sketch ‘Aunt and Nephew’ 1915

Paul Klee made this portrait sketch of an 'Aunt and Nephew’ with watercolor, exploring the dynamics of family relationships through simplified geometric forms. The limited monochrome palette focuses our attention on the shapes. I imagine Klee, squinting, trying to find the essential planes of the faces, like a puzzle to be assembled with washes of grey. Look how he uses the contrast to define each figure, the solid block of the aunt’s profile against the lighter, almost skeletal nephew. I wonder what he was thinking about as he painted this? Was he struck by the contrast in their personalities? Or perhaps it was a formal exercise, pushing the boundaries of representation. Klee was a master of reduction, finding the essence of a subject through abstraction, much like other artists who were working at this time. It’s a reminder that art is a conversation and exchange of ideas that stretches across time. It encourages me to embrace ambiguity and uncertainty, and to enjoy the multiple layers of meaning that emerge.