Street Children (Gassenkinder)

Street Children (Gassenkinder) by Paul Klee is a significant early graphic work executed in 1912, created using the demanding medium of lithography. This period marks a crucial transitional phase for the German artist, occurring just prior to his pivotal trip to Tunisia, which would profoundly influence his use of color and subsequent abstraction. While Klee is most famous for his association with later Bauhaus movements, this 1912 print reflects the immediate socio-cultural landscape of pre-War Europe and echoes German Expressionist interests in depicting the marginalized and the raw realities of urban life.

As a lithograph, the work demonstrates Klee’s developing proficiency in graphic control, relying on stark tonal contrasts and simplified lines inherent to the printmaking process. The composition focuses intimately on the figures implied by the title, rendered in a distinctive, almost schematic style typical of Klee’s formative explorations. Unlike the academic naturalism of preceding generations, Klee’s treatment of the subject matter suggests an immediate, expressive observation of the lives of Street Children (Gassenkinder), moving toward a psychological rather than purely mimetic portrayal. This early experimentation with fine art prints and graphic techniques laid the essential groundwork for the more complex print cycles and graphic works Klee would undertake in the following decades.

Although relatively abstract for its time, the work retains a powerful connection to its source material, capturing the essence of the period. This important example of Klee's initial mastery of the print medium is housed in the comprehensive collection of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). As a masterwork created in 1912, it falls into the classification of foundational modern German art, and high-quality images of this print are frequently available through public domain art archives, providing broad access to Klee’s foundational efforts in the development of modern art.