Ask the Scholar
Document scope · 1 page
Scholar
Ask about this object, its catalog metadata, its source description, or the page inventory.
For page-specific OCR and visual context, open one of the page chats.
Source Description
This drawing belongs to a series of large format works with bold colors, thick painterly lines, and pictograph formations that Paul Klee created late in his career. The period during which they were made was marked by anxiety for the artist, as political turmoil grew in Europe during the 1930s. To suggest this experience, Klee painted on a sheet of newspaper, allowing the printed text to intermingle with his own sign-like marks. The article visible here, for example, discusses the Spanish civil war. The figures that dominate the work more subtly suggest this crisis, including a large face with heavy eyelids and an enigmatic smile depicted in layers of yellow paint and several dancing or running figures in the foreground delineated by areas left unpainted.
Scholar Source Context
Document identity
localId
156571
label
God of War
core
obj
dtoType
drawing
pageCount
1
Source metadata
id
156571
contentType
drawing
title
God of War
description
This drawing belongs to a series of large format works with bold colors, thick painterly lines, and pictograph formations that Paul Klee created late in his career. The period during which they were made was marked by anxiety for the artist, as political turmoil grew in Europe during the 1930s. To suggest this experience, Klee painted on a sheet of newspaper, allowing the printed text to intermingle with his own sign-like marks. The article visible here, for example, discusses the Spanish civil war. The figures that dominate the work more subtly suggest this crisis, including a large face with heavy eyelids and an enigmatic smile depicted in layers of yellow paint and several dancing or running figures in the foreground delineated by areas left unpainted.
date
1937
rights
CC0
rightsUri
CC0
language
en
wikidata
Q79946087
creators
11674
genreSpecific
Drawing
imageCount
1
source
import
dimensionsRaw
Sheet: 35.2 x 29 cm (13 7/8 x 11 7/16 in.); Secondary Support: 64.6 x 49.3 cm (25 7/16 x 19 7/16 in.)
cul
Germany, 20th century
accession
1992.278
Source extras
tec
Gouache and tempera
tombstone
God of War, 1937. Paul Klee (German, 1879–1940). Gouache and tempera; sheet: 35.2 x 29 cm (13 7/8 x 11 7/16 in.); secondary support: 64.6 x 49.3 cm (25 7/16 x 19 7/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Bequest of Lockwood Thompson, 1992.278
supportMaterials
description
newspaper tipped onto cream(3) wove paper (artist's mount)
collection
DR - German
inscriptions
inscription
signed, upper left, in paint: Klee; secondary support, by artist, lower center, in brown ink: 1937 K. 5. Kriegs Gott ["37 K. 5. Kriegs Gott" underlined in graphite]; lower center, in graphite: III; verso of secondary support, upper left, in graphite: Nos 39 31 / 35 x 29 [all circled]; upper left, on separately applied label: [upper portion cropped] / 1937 [inscribed in blue ink] No [printed in black ink] 0843 [stamped in blue ink] / Paul Klee / Dieu de la Guerre / 35 x 29 [last three lines inscribed in blue ink] / Photo No [printed in black ink]
formerAccessionNumbers
92.1939
didYouKnow
Shortly before this drawing was made, Paul Klee was exiled from Germany to his native Switzerland due to the political turmoil that led to World War II.
citations
citation
Helfenstein, Josef and Christian Rümelin. <em>Paul Klee: Catalogue Raisonné</em>. Bern: Kunstmuseum Bern, 1998-2004
page_number
Mentioned and reproduced: vol. 7, no. 6961
citation
<em>Paul Klee: Oeuvres Récentes</em>. Exh. Cat. Paris: Galerie Simon, 1938.<em><br></em>
page_number
Mentioned: no. 34
citation
<em>Paul Klee</em>. Exh. Cat. New York: Buchholz Gallery/Willard Gallery, 1940.
page_number
Mentioned and reproduced: no. 86
citation
Vishny, Michèle. "Paul Klee and War: A Stance of Aloofness." <em>Gazette des Beaux-Arts </em>92 (December 1978): 233-243
page_number
Mentioned: p. 241
citation
Kersten, Wolfgang. <em>Paul Klee, Übermut: Allegorie der künstlerischen Existenz</em>. Frankfurt am Main: Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag, 1990.
page_number
Mentioned: pp. 60-61; Reproduced: p. 63
citation
Kersten, Wolfgang and Osamu Okuda. <em>Paul Klee: Im Zeichen der Teilung</em>. Exh. Cat. Düsseldorf: Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, 1995.
page_number
Mentioned: pp. 214-215
citation
Francis, Henry S. "Exhibition of Expressionism and Related Movements." <em>Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art</em> 26, no. 2 (February 1939): 19.
page_number
Mentioned: p. 19
citation
DeLamater, Peg. "Klee and India<em>: </em>Krishna Themes in the Art of Paul Klee." PhD diss., University of Texas at Austin, 1991.
page_number
Mentioned: p. 245
citation
"The Year in Review for 1992." <em>Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art</em> 80, no. 2 (February 1993): 39-72.
page_number
Mentioned: p. 72, no. 230; Reproduced: p. 62
citation
DeGrazia, Diane, and Carter E. Foster. <em>Master Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art</em>. Exh. Cat. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2000.
page_number
Mentioned: p. 11, pp. 260-261, 298; Reproduced: p. 261
citation
Uhde-Stahl, Brigitte. <em>Paul Klees geheime Symbolik</em>. Berlin : Gebr. Mann Verlag, [2018]
page_number
Reproduced: p. 264; mentioned: pp. 335-337
catalogueRaisonne
Helfenstein and Rümelin 6961
creditline
Bequest of Lockwood Thompson
updatedAt
2026-05-29 08:08:22.479000
sourceId
156571
dept
Drawings
coll
DR - German
med
Gouache and tempera
creatorTags
male
thumbnail_url
image_url
Single page context
seq
1
pageIndex
0
type
photo
mediaId
9ae5af3d584f0fc7