Shop art print and framed art Sleeping cat by Paul Klee

Cat and Bird is the title of a famous painting by Paul Klee dating from 1928, when the artist was teaching at the Bauhaus in Dessau. In a detail that fills the format, the painting shows the broad face of a stylised cat with a small bird on its forehead. The painting is now in the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Paul Klee always produced paintings and drawings of cats, the best-known being Cat and Bird from 1928. The small bird on the forehead of the portrait is actually "in the cat's head"; presumably it is dreaming of the potential prey. In this painting, the bird only plays a secondary role; the main character is undoubtedly the cat, whose face dominates the format. Domestic cats often like to sit in narrow containers. The expression on their faces is marked by a frightening vigilance, represented by the open eyes with vertical pupils typical of cats, but also by calm. In this painting, Klee's colours are muted, ranging from pink to light brown, with areas of bluish, green and violet, all in all a warm colouring that corresponds to the warmth-loving nature of domestic cats. Only the tip of the nose is bright red in the shape of a heart. This heart, a well-known symbol, expresses a kind of "affectionate desire". Klee loved cats and sometimes had them in his home and studio. Above the bird, at the top of the painting, is a kind of dark celestial body, a motif that we see more often in his paintings. The painter saw the world as the model for a cosmic planetarium to show [...]

 

This artwork is a drawing from the modern period. It belongs to the expressionism style.

 

« Sleeping cat » is kept at Private collection.

 

Find the full description of Sleeping cat by Paul Klee on Wikipedia.