The last of the mercenaries 1931

Paul Klee made "The Last of the Mercenaries" with watercolor and ink, creating a world that feels both whimsical and a bit unsettling. The first thing that grabs you is the cross hatching, like a kind of armour plating over the whole piece. It's all about the surface here. The colours are thin, transparent washes, but layered and built up to create depth. You can almost feel the scratch of the pen as it builds up line by line. It's in these marks that Klee's process becomes visible. If you look closely, you’ll see how each shape, each plane of colour, is edged in ink, defining and isolating these small sections like a stained-glass window. The more you look, the more the piece starts to feel like a puzzle. Klee reminds me a little of Philip Guston, both of them creating worlds that are both playful and deeply serious, full of feeling, and maybe even a little bit lost.