K lee showed extreme promise and skill during his formal artistic training in Munich and Rome and in 1921 moved to Weimar, following architect Walter Gropius who was invited to teach at the Bauhaus. In 1927, Klee traveled to Provence and onward to Corsica capturing scenes of southern coastal cities throughout his travels. Inspired by the Bauhaus belief in constructivist art, Klee’s scenes are characterized by an abstract formal language and bright colors.

In 1927 Klee’s produced a series of seven works depicting the coast of Provence. The drawings are categorized by increasingly abstract and geometric techniques, also influenced by Paul Cézanne's fractured approach to landscape. By depicting symbols and geometric patterns against a flat, nearly monochromatic background, in the series Klee created a combination of pictorial and linguistic signs, characteristic of Egyptian hieroglyphs and other ancient scripts.

The present work is a test.mes nt of Klee’s mastery of watercolor – harnessed to create a script-like pattern that evokes a mystical, novel language.

Mr. Frederick C. Schang, an early owner of this work, was a prominent booking agent who managed concerts and tours by some of the the most noteworthy orchestras and performers of the 1930s and 1940s, including operatic soprano Lily Pons, baritone Nelson Eddy, and the von Trapp family choir after their arrival to the United States. The watercolor is now offered at public auction for the first t.mes in nearly 40 years.