Paul Klee's auction market remains strong across all six decades of his career, with his top prices achieved for works spanning multiple creative periods, from his early Bauhaus years to his final works in Switzerland. His most valuable pieces showcase his distinctive approach to colour, rhythm, and abstraction, with significant collector interest in his later figurative works from the 1930s. Six of his top 10 prices have been achieved since 2010, indicating a surge in market appreciation. Klee's fusion of music, architecture, and childlike simplicity continues to resonate with collectors, with his best works consistently commanding seven-figure sums at prestigious auction houses.
Paul Klee (1879-1940), who famously described drawing as "taking a line for a walk," fused Expressionism, Cubism, and Surrealism into an artistic style that transcends easy categorisation. The Swiss-German artist's evolution from a musically-inclined youth to one of the 20th century's most innovative painters resulted in nearly 10,000 works spanning numerous styles and techniques. While his limited edition prints maintain steady demand in the secondary market, his paintings from his most productive periods - particularly his Bauhaus years (1921-31) and his final Swiss period - that command the highest prices at auction, regularly achieving seven-figure results.
Tänzerin (1932), the title of which translates to “Dancer,” achieved Klee's current auction record when it sold at Christie's London in June 2011. This piece was created during a pivotal transition in Klee's career, after leaving the Bauhaus and while teaching at the Düsseldorf Academy, and showcases Klee's mature style of linear abstraction against repetitive points of colour. It exemplifies Klee's distinctive "divisionist" technique, which he defined as building a colour field from individually stamped dots, surrounded by likewise stamped lines. The elongated form of the dancer, in its confident brushwork and spatial sophistication, demonstrates Klee’s ability to convey movement through minimal means. The painting emerged just before political upheaval would force Klee to return to Switzerland, representing one of the final masterworks from his German period. At the time, the Nazi party was gaining significant power in parliament, the work stands as a testament to Klee's creative resilience in the face of growing turmoil.
($4,000,000)
Bunte Landschaft (1928), or “Colourful Landscape,” sold out of the Paul G. Allen Collection at Christie's New York in November 2022, exceeding its estimate by over 100%. This modestly-sized mixed media work features the mosaic-like patterns typical of Klee's abstract compositions - the tiles resembling houses and fields. Created during his productive Bauhaus years, this work emerged following Klee's influential trip to Egypt, where he developed what art historian Olivier Berggruen described as "a mystical feeling" and "a sense of connection to the land." The painting's structured layout reflects Egyptian design and architectural influences, particularly seen in the almost hieroglyphic symbols decorating the houses and outlining the trees. Unlike many contemporaries who favoured mechanical precision, Klee's hand-drawn grid creates a deliberate "wonkiness" that maintains a human, handcrafted quality.
(€3,500,000)
Abend In N (1937), or Evening In N, represents one of Klee's most successful explorations of colour harmonies through geometric abstraction, and his sophisticated understanding of colour theory, which he taught at the Bauhaus. The predominantly deep blues, browns, and reds evoke the transitional light of evening, while the mathematical precision of the composition mirrors Klee's interest in the relationship between art and music. Despite the structured grid, there is a sense of musicality and movement in the work, as the colours seem to vibrate and interact with one another. The exceptional price achieved at Sotheby's Paris in June 2020 demonstrates the continuing market appreciation for Klee's most abstract works, particularly those that showcase his distinctive approach to colour theory. The painting's strong provenance and exhibition history further enhanced its appeal to collectors, cementing its status as one of Klee's most significant auction achievements.
(€3,500,000)
Gartenfigur (1932) achieved this impressive result at Christie's Paris in February 2009, exceeding its estimate by nearly six times. This heavily abstracted oil painting showcases Klee's ability to alter organic forms while maintaining their essential character. While the simplified figure initially seems unrecognisable as a person, its features ultimately emerge. The painting's impressive provenance included exhibition at major museums across Europe, including the Kunstmuseum Basel. It was created just before the onset of the health problems that would eventually claim his life, demonstrating Klee's technical confidence during his final German period. In 1935, Klee developed scleroderma, possibly linked to his lifelong exposure to art materials - such as mercury, cadmium, arsenic, lead, antimony, tin, cobalt, manganese, and chromium - adding a poignant dimension to works from this period, representing both the height of his creative powers and the physical toll of his artistic practice.
Another work from 1932, and the earliest auction result on this list, Auftrieb Und Weg (Segelflug) (1932) sold at Christie's London in April 1989, setting a record that held for 30 years before the 2009 sale of Gartenfigur (1932). The title translates to "Uplift and Way (Gliding)," which reflects the kite-like shapes that form the composition - the geometric depiction of the shapes appears almost like a diagram. It reflects Klee's interest in the interaction between movement and structure, exploring how line and form can express movement and direction, concepts he taught in his Bauhaus classes. Klee was drafted into the German army in 1916, during World War I, though his father intervened to prevent him from being sent to the front lines. Instead, he served in a reserve regiment and at an aviation school in Gersthofen, where he was able to continue painting throughout the conflict - a context that adds depth to this work's theme of flight.
($4,400,000)
Pflanze Und Fenster Stilleben (1927), an aptly titled abstract still life featuring plants an a window, sold at Christie’s New York in November 2010. It was created at a pivotal time in Klee's career when the Bauhaus was forced to relocate from Weimar to Dessau. Despite its traditional-sounding title, this work is far from a conventional still life. The simple title suggests a traditional interior and still life composition, but the painting is characterised by distorted, two-dimensional imagery and diametric colour - what Klee once called "the irrational element in painting". The window motif, which appears in many of Klee's works, serves as a metaphorical boundary between interior and exterior, seen and unseen. The painting exemplifies Klee's mature Bauhaus style, in which he synthesised his theoretical explorations of colour and form with his instinctive sense of poetry and whimsy.
Geschwister (1930), an abstract portrait of “Siblings,” sold for 150% of its high estimate at Sotheby’s London in June 1996. It highlights Klee's experiments with Surrealism - the overlapping shapes look like two siblings embracing. The effect is an almost childlike feeling, and a sense of fragility. Klee had a lifelong interest in the art of children and the mentally ill, believing that both should be taken much more seriously by public galleries. This interest encouraged both a directness and expressiveness in his own work that defied the expectations of traditional skill. By 1930, when the piece was created, Klee had become an established and well-known artist: the first major monograph on Klee's work was published, written by Will Grohmann, just a year before.
($3,300,000)
Rythmische Baumlandschaft (1920) sold at Christie’s New York in October 2020. This ‘rhythmic tree landscape’ exemplifies Klee's lifelong fascination with the relationship between visual art and music. It transforms the traditional landscape genre into a rhythmic composition of dots, lines, and geometric forms that resemble musical notes. Klee himself was an accomplished violinist who came from a musical family and applied the principles of musical composition to his art. Like many of Klee’s works, this piece was confiscated as ‘degenerate art’ from the then Kunstverein Barmen in 1937 by the Reichsministerium für Volksaufklärung und Propaganda; since then, however, the painting has been consistently displayed at the likes of the Tate Modern, the Kunsthalle Hamburg, and Marlborough Fine Arts.
Die Sängerin L. Als Fiordiligi (1923-39), which was notably repeated in different media across a 16-year period, is Klee's most important opera painting and features one of the most frequently recurring motifs in his oeuvre. The work depicts a character from Mozart's comic opera Così Fan Tutte, Fiordiligi - one of the two main female protagonists. The scene referenced is Act 2, Scene 12, where Fiordiligi, having resisted Ferrando's advances, puts on her lover Guglielmo's helmet and declares her intention to fight alongside him. Klee created no less than five versions of this portrait, beginning with a needle-etched drawing that served as a prototype. The version sold at Sotheby's London in November 1989 is considered the main work of the series, which Klee elaborated into chalk, oil, and watercolour work. The initial creation of this work coincided with Klee joining the group Die Blaue Vier (The Blue Four) with Kandinsky, Lyonel Feininger, and Alexej von Jawlensky. The group was formed in 1923, and they lectured and exhibited together in the US in 1925. This painting became particularly popular among French Surrealists of the time, who appreciated its dreamlike quality and psychological complexity.
Painted in 1932, Stadtburg KR. is an example of Klee's ability to disguise architectural elements within compositions that are at once geometric and dream-like. It forms part of a series called Castle and Sun, which Klee started working on in 1928. The town castle appears as an abstract composition with various rectangles and triangles arranged to create the illusion of depth and perspective. It was created shortly after Klee left the Bauhaus, but clearly shows the influence of his teaching there. Like many of his works from this period, it occupies a space between representation and abstraction, inviting viewers to see familiar structures in new ways. The strong price achieved at Sotheby's London in 2011 reflects the market's enduring appreciation for works that exemplify Klee's unique contribution to Modernist abstraction.