Interieur mit der Uhr (Interior with the Clock)

Interieur mit der Uhr (Interior with the Clock) by Paul Klee, executed in 1913, is a highly significant watercolor drawing created during the artist's formative pre-war period. This early modernist work utilizes watercolor on paper, which Klee subsequently mounted onto cardboard, a common technique for preserving the integrity of delicate paper compositions. The translucency of the watercolor medium lends the piece an atmospheric, somewhat fragile quality, characteristic of Klee’s exploratory works from this era.

The drawing is titled after its primary subject, a contained domestic interior featuring a clock. However, Klee uses the interior setting not for realistic depiction but as a canvas for color and formal experimentation. The objects within the room, including the titular timepiece, are simplified and abstracted into basic geometric shapes and planar segments. This reductive approach allows the viewer to focus on the interplay of color and line, foreshadowing the complete abstraction Klee would embrace later in his career.

Klee, a pivotal figure in the Swiss-German modern art movement during the years 1901 to 1925, was deeply concerned with themes of time, structure, and rhythmic composition. Interieur mit der Uhr demonstrates his sophisticated assimilation of Cubist principles regarding simultaneous perspectives and the fragmentation of form, tempered by his innate lyricism. This work is classified within the Drawing category and provides crucial documentation of Klee’s methodical development as he began to define his unique visual language outside of traditional European academic styles.

The drawing is a foundational component of early 20th-century Swiss modernism and resides in the permanent collection of the National Gallery of Art. It is frequently studied by scholars interested in Klee’s transition toward abstraction, and high-quality prints of this important work are widely available through museum and public domain reference resources.