The Witch with the Comb (Die Hexe mit dem Kamm) from the portfolio Artists' Donation to the German Book Museum (Künstlerspende für das deutsche Buchmuseum)

The Witch with the Comb (Die Hexe mit dem Kamm) from the portfolio Artists' Donation to the German Book Museum (Künstlerspende für das deutsche Buchmuseum) is a significant 1922 lithograph created by Paul Klee. This important print was executed as part of a major philanthropic project designed to raise funds and increase awareness for German cultural institutions during the turbulent post-World War I era. Klee was among many prominent modern artists who contributed works to the Künstlerspende initiative, firmly placing this work within the challenging yet creatively fertile German cultural landscape of the early 1920s.

The graphic style of the work reflects Klee’s influential position teaching at the Bauhaus during this period. Created in 1922, the composition uses delicate, precise line work characteristic of the artist's ability to balance childlike drawing with profound structural organization. Klee often approached figurative subject matter, such as the titular witch figure, not through literal representation but through his unique system of semi-abstract signs and symbols. He reduces the figure to essential geometric elements and fluid, spontaneous strokes.

The medium of lithography allowed Klee to achieve exceptionally crisp and dynamic lines while maintaining a sense of immediacy and spontaneity. The resulting imagery is whimsical yet intellectual, showcasing Klee’s mastery of the printed form during his transition toward increasing abstraction.

This piece demonstrates Klee’s exploration of narrative figures reduced to essential geometry, a core element of his modernist vocabulary. As an influential German master, Klee’s works remain cornerstones of modern art collections globally. This specific 1922 print is held in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). Although the original run of these fine prints was limited, images of these seminal modernist pieces are now widely shared and sometimes made available for study and reproduction through digital archives, benefiting the larger public domain.