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Home , Albert Bloch, Alexander Kanoldt, Arthur Jerome Eddy, Bernhard Koehler, Der Sturm, Franz Marc

The Beginnings: and America before 1920 MICHAEL BAUMCARTNER

honest search for the appropriate means of expression for such seeing and feeling."2 By the end of 1913, despite repeated efforts, Klee had cap- tured the interest of only a single well-known collector, the Blaue the shipment. In contrast to his fellow artists Vasily Kandinsky and Reiter patron , to whom he sold nine works. And

Franz Marc-the organizers of the Blaue Reiter exhibition, whose it was only recently that he had begun making a few straggling sales were distinguished by their expressive colors and formal from the exhibitions mounted by gallery owners Hans Goltz in Mu- daring-Klee's idiosyncratic , many of them only post- nich and in . Given this situation, the fact card size, had as yet excited little interest on the part of collectors that a high-profile collector like Eddy had expressed interest in of contemporary at\ meeting with slight notice or even rejection Klee's work seemed promising indeed. Eddy had begun collect- from the press. ing art in 1884 at the age of twenty-five, had commissioned por-

Klee had studied art on his own for four years while living at traits of himself from and James McNeill S4ristler his parents'house in , . Then in late November (flg. 3), and had caused a stir in 's avant-garde circles in 1906 he had moved with his wife, Lil¡ to Munich, where he tried 1912 with his great enthusiasm for the work of Kandinsky.S The to find a foothold-at first with little success in the local art world. Iarge shipment that immediately went to Eddy was part of Klee's As late as 1911, Klee's friend Hans Bloesch, editor of Die Alþenra strategy of demonstrating the diversity of his offerings and thereby Swiss cultural monthly in Bern, still found it necessary to challenge stimulating the buyer's interest. the public's lack of understanding of Klee (frS. t). He wrote that the response to Klee's art "has always been a cautious silence on -Mecca for Nineteenth-Century American Artists the part of the critics and helpless mystification on the part of the A full two years earlier, Klee had made the following interesting public, which after the initial shock, in its hunger for making aes- observation in Die Alþen regarding the importance of American theticjudgments, has turned either scornfully or dismissively to- collectors to the Munich art market: "Munich has seen a number ward more familiar grazing spots.... What Paul Klee is striving to of inroads made on its reputation as a fine art center, mainly as a re- do is to express in art his own subjective way of seeing; his is an sult of the broad dissemination of French . Evidence

Page 16 USS Leviathan steams into City harbor, 1925.

Cablecar turnabout, Powell at Market Streets, San Francisco, c. I925.

Page 17

Fig. 1 Cover and page l7l of Broom 4,no.3 (February 1923). K)ee's Selbstmörder aufder Paul Klee in Bern, Switzerland, 191I Bräche [Suicide on the BritlgQ Q913.100) is repLoduced.

19 of this is the ominous fact that it is now Germany that is primarily 4 involved in the local market and no longer America as before'" Grl Klee's statement suggests that things had once been better in large part because American artists and collectors had enlivened the local rÌ scene. Until the 1890s,when Impressionism began to draw their at- tention to , Munich had been the chief focus of their interest. a $ It was not the flrst city in Germany to attract American artists' In the mid nineteenth century an art center had developed in Düs- seldorfaround an academy whose faculty enjoyed an outstanding reputation.S The most important outlet for this school of painters was NewYork's Düsseldorf Gallerywhich dominated 's art market at that time-it was there that the young Henry James de- veloped his artistic tastes.6 But in the second half of the century Düsseldorf's position as a magnet for American artists and collec- tors was taken over by Munich. Between 1870 and 1900, nearþ flve hundred American painters and sculptors (roughly a third of them of German ancestry) came to the Bavarian capital for brief or extended stays, studying either at the academy or privately'7 Some American painters grouped themselves around their countryman ì Franz Duveneck, adopting his free and developing \ an expressive, imaginative form of (they came to be known as the "Duveneck Boys"). Others made their way to the Bavarian village of Polling,which became an American artists' colony dominated byJ. Frank Currier.s Klee frrst went to Munich in 1898 to study in the private paint- ing class of Heinrich Knirr and with Franz von Stuck at the acad- emy. At that time a number of Americans were still studying there , even though the American art world had largely shifted its atten- tion to Paris. One of Klee's fellow students in Knirr's class was an American by the name of David Karfunkle,who was later active in New York as a painter.g

German Avant-Garde in Early Twentieth-Century America Because of the shift of interest from Munich to Paris in the closing years of the nineteenth century the art of Germany's early twentieth- century avant-garde was slow to frnd admirers in the United States' Movements like the , to say nothing of such avant-garde groups as Die Brücke or , made their impact there considerably later than they had in Europe.r0 Instead American notions of the European avant-garde were mainly influenced by

Fig.2 ArdrurJerome Edd¡ n.d.

Fig. 3 ín Flesh Colour and' Brown: James McNeill Whisú.er,Arrangement Portrait of ArthurJerome Edþ,1894. Oil on canvas,877/ex36% inches (2 l0 x 93 cm). , Memorial Collection, I93 l'501.

MICHAEL BAUMGARTNER ,,Exhi- French . All the more remarkable, then, was the Eddy and Klee bition of Contemporary German Graphic Art,'assembled by the The exhibition ar rhe Berlin Photographic Company definitely dealer and critic Martin Birnbaum on the model of the piqued the inreresr of people like photographer , t'Black-White,, Berlin Secession's exhibitions. He presented the whose Galerie 291 wasjust around the corner.14 But Eddy's first exhibition at the New York branch of the Berlin phorographic exposure to the German avant-garde was paradoxically through Company in the winter of lg72-13. The core of his selection of the Armory Show15 Although rhe rwenry-five works Eddybought 370 works was made up of pieces by such artists as , at that exhibition were almost exclusively French, it was Kanclin- Käthe Kollwitz,Maxliebermann, and Heinrich Vogler, but there sky's Imþrovisation No. 27-bought by Stiegli tz-thatmosr im_ were also works by Marc, Kandinsk¡ , Wilhelm pressed him. As a result, he called on Kandinsky in Munich that Lehmbruck, Moritz Melzer, , and , to same year and returned to America with eighteen of the artist,s name only the most prominent, all of them exhibiting for the first works.l6 Through his interest in Kandinsky and Marc, Eddy also time in America.ll became acquainted with Klee, whose work he might have seen in However limited it was, Birnbaum,s view of the essence of the second group show of the Munich gallery Neue Kunst Hans German art-in his foreword to the catalogue, he insistecl that Goltz and whom he possibly even met in Munich.17 "Germany's artistic genius has always been distinctly graphic"I2- Soon after Eddy's return to Chicago, Kleets American Express was in accord with contemporary thinking. Birnbaum,s annual shipment arrived. The range of the work astonished Eddy. Klee trips to Europe took him to German¡ Austro-Hungary and Scandi- had deliberately larded his selection with color or tonal water_ navia rather than Paris, and despite his narrow focus, he proved to colors, assuming that they would appeal to the collector more than be a profound connoisseur and admirer of contemporary German drawings. And Eddy appeared to confirm those suspicions, writ- art movements. This was in contrast to Walt Kuhn, the organizer ing to Klee: "I have never bought either etchings or small draw- of the that opened in New york a few months later ings, because I cannot afford to buy all forms of art, so I confine in February 1913. Kuhn showed little interest in current develop- myself almost exclusively to paintings.,,18 Despite this reservation, ments in German¡ and except for Kandinsky,s legendary Imþro- Eddy asked the artist to send him a number of black-and-white uisation No. 27 (I9I2)rhepaid no notice to the German avant-garde. works as well, a request that Klee complied with by return mail. Birnbaum's show had already included Kandinsk¡ exhibiting the After tough negotiations, which tell us something of the two pro- artist's color lithograph Comþosítion Na 4 ( 19 I I ), which had been tagonists'highly developed business sense, Klee and Eddy finally reproduced inthe Der Blaue Reiter almanac. In his memoirs Birn- agreed on the purchase of six works for a total of 400 marks baum rightly emphasized his trailblazing role: ,,The Armory Show, (fig. a).t9 In his choices Eddy was intent on securing a repre sen- a turning point in the development of American art, had not fa- yet tative overview of Klee's work from the previous years.2o His se- miliarized us with the work of these fGerman artists],who are now lection included the import ant Steínhauer II (getont) [Stonecutters enthusiastically accepted but were then treated like Anarchists.,,13 I I (tint e d,) I ( 19 10. 74), the only work of Klee,s thar had been repro- duced in the Der Blaue Reiter almanac, which gave it a certain documentary value.

, 'il ,í,/ ) i i' 'i : i , ':,! ¿ .. i/ , .)) -/

¿ , ',,1 "'>3 .i (e o'für6r f cao 1 -/-/.le Q r xlr.¿,tus /l t þìrdø4 ./ (\./ 4V/+/,M+ l,¿ "#t 'k/ Fig.4 il4lArn^'"!G'' Paul Klee's entry regarding sales to 40ü Arthur Jerorne Edd¡ æuvre catalogle, rt, KatalogA I 1883-1918. i^, T

THE BECINNINCS 21 " Cubists and Post-lmpressionism " -further describing Picasso's work as at an "impasse," with the In his epoch-making book Cubists and Post-Imþressionism (1914), explanation that "further plogress is impossible, further scientific Eddy devoted a full four pages to Klee's work in the chapter "The subdivision is unattainable, his art in that direction is finished."26 New Art in Munich," as much space as he allotted to Gabriele Eddy represented the type of middle-class collector that was Münter or -a clearjudgment of Klee's high typical of America bul new to Europe, collectors who had amassed value for lirn.2l By.otnpa.ison, he gave Marc and AlexeiJawlensky a considerable fortune as entrepreneurs, merchants) or attorneys. a page each, whereas Kandinsk¡ Ecldy's favorite, received a full In the eyes of established European collectors, who came from the twenty-four.22 nobility and the upper class, these Americans were parvenus lack- Of Klee, Eddy wrote: "There is another and almost unknown ing in family tradition. But it was precisely this supposed lack that artist, P. Klee, who is very higlily esteemed by the most advanced proved to be these collectors' strength. They viewed the artists they men. There is certainly an exquisite refrnement to his line; it is so supported as kindred spirits who,like themselves, had shrugged

alive it scintillates."23 Eddy definitely tagged Klee, whose artistic offinherited values and traditions to se ek new ways of selÊrealiza- importance he found difÊcult to assess, as a draftsman rather than tion as individualists capable of taking risks. In his foreword to a painter. Furthelmore, the attribute "exquisite refrnement" had a Cubists and Post-Imþressionism,Eddy explicitly referred to this somewhat negative connotation in Eddy's terminology, suggesting spiritual affinity between the rising class of business and profes- that he had certain reservations about Klee's idiosyncrasy. SigniÊ sional people in America and contemporary artists: "The young icantl¡ he reproduced Klee's pen-and-brush wash Døs painter looks at the great painters of yesterday and exclaims,'What Haus an der Brüche [The House fu the Bridge] (1911.58, flg. 5) in is the use? I cannot excel them in their way; I must do something the chapter "What Is ," which was devoted to Pablo in my own way.'It is lhe same in business; the young merchant Picasso, and not where it rightly belonged, in "The New Alt in studies the methods of the successful men in his line and says, 'It Munich."24 Apparentþ Klee's delicate "Post-Impressionist" draw- is idle form lo copy their methods. I will do something in my own ing did not fit into Eddy's concept of the new art in Munich, which way,'and he displays his goods differentl¡ advertises differentl¡ he de scribed, using the example of Kandinsk¡ as "sþiritual . .. conducts his business diflerentl¡ and if successful is hailed as a ge- based on the inner fworld]" and future-oriented ("before him an nius, ifa failure he is regarded as a visionary or an eccentric the unlimited view").z5 This was in contrast to the Cubism of Picasso, result making all the difference in the world in the verdict of the 27 which he characterized as "þþsical" and"based onthe outerworld" public."

88 CUBISTS AND POST.IMPRESSIONISM ¡ynbol. Wllhout (h¿ doùhl. d.liBht-ùr conhl¡tl¡otr ol 6éú. leo qu[. dhlnct d.llshh, ilr.r. c¡n bê no âil Tô lù¿ çril.r o¡ proã. lh.r. ñây con. c bcaulilul lãncv¡ h. d.lishts ¡r I and hail¿ñr (o r.cord hì! rhôùßht. Hô nrt Fll. th. no* Roçlnt, th¿ nolt p.rfècr pro!., but.¡ h. wr¡l¿r lG ù Et¡lt o.crpi.d drh hl, lhoußhl; hìs.ol. obj.ct i. lö ñtrd words wh¡.h {il| búr .rprê!. ¡t th. sm. lárct .omrt to lhô po.L' h., loo, d.lisht. in h, Ànd s¿.¡r ro rccord it; but çh.n th. po.t rouch.t Fn lo pdp.. t ;l hc ¡. !¿L.d wlh. n¿ç tnd án..Lt.ìy di¡rinct d.lìshl, â d.llBhl ú' .l Jã ht iltt¡o¿ ôl .!rrrn'! ni' lÀoug[L; hô nsy .v.n pê.mlt hl. d.lisht i¡ ùli .ydbô¡, l¡. now, rhrrhn âtrd rlns ol rhvm., to ¡w..p hio otrward ln fors.úuln.6s ô¡ h¡s 6(t l.¡cy-t[..atuÌ. h ñU.d *ilh

NoE lnd Lh.n  writ.( o¡ !¡os. è¡pr.ôt.s himtcll !o 6n.lr, *rÍ.s 60 çdl, Lhàt w. l..l inBl¡ncilvêly ând lñn.diat.ly not oñ1, i r¡. dèrisht ln rh. rhôoshr, Ùut âìdo ¡ cerr¡in dnount of doLisht ¡n (h. tunn.r ot .rpr...lnß (hê ¡ùoushq lr th. ¡tyl., . , . ¡rd ro lh. .xl.rt r ol lh. dorr,, d.üBh1 áu.h p¡o.. l¡ ôrq lor âil 6¡ q¿ lhÀll t..' h by no m..ná cônñn.d to lh. ñv. Bo-calléd fn. ril! No ¡ard rnd h* Iìr¿.ân bÈ d¡.wr bÈrr..¡ il!.t ahicù i¡.rl .nd ùàt vhich ir not th. o¡. f.d.r imD.r..p(ihly lnto th. oth.r 'il, Ând faúer on h thc ssme ¡iltlc volomêi' Ah. NB.hl ¡otions of sd..è dch .rd th. cùrr.ñ( notlon. of J lator arc .uch ú.t ll har ¡.cn lo mort ol ,ou á3 (hough dny ¡rr.npt ro dirdss lh.1wo logcrh.r coùld r.iuh onlr ln ¡ wail. ol

Ir rh. c..et domin ol hu6¡n.torL rhât dE ônG 6lõo¡t irvanrbly lnDll.d mor. or l.r! ôr rhè orh.r; nnd rh. tlh. wlll y.t b¿ wh.n rh¿r. wll¡ b¿ no lôbor eitloùr ar l.¿il som6 ãrt, .v!n .¡ (h.r. i. now ¿nd .vèr i.! b¿.n ¡ô ãil w¡rlrô!t ál l.Eår.on. l¡bôr, Art ll.! not i¡ rh. .ñplorñènq hût ìtr rh. ,'ùnrrr or th. .BDloy, m.nt ol lh. Doú.rr of n¡rur. for an.nd; rol iñ tho t¡ek. hut ¡r rh. o,ritrd¿ of th. work.r tow¡rdr hi6 t¡¡L 9êO Whether a Cubist pEìntinB is or i. ¡ot art doÊr ¡ot d€pênd upon th. opirion of .¡th€r c.kic or nultitudei jf Fig. 5 it d¡d ¡l woùld b. art to one man ¡nd trot to årothrr. ãñ to PauIKee, Das Haus an d¿r Brüclte House by the one gen.r¡(¡on ¿nd not to âro(hc.-ân illog¡c¡l concluaìon, [The

. " D¿lichtí lt. soúl of I.clur. v. " D.l¡sht in L¡bor/' 'a. BrídgQ, 79 17.58. Pen and brush wasb on paper rnounted ^'r," on cardboard, dinensions unknowr. Location unlarown. Reprodnced ìn Arthur Jerome Ecìdy, Cubists and Post- Intþr'essionism (Chicago: A. C. McClurg, 1914),87 88.

22 MICHAEL BAUMGARTNER -Þ

4)1r l-lu

The Coming of the First World War Artistic exchange between Germany and ùe United States came to Klee and America an abrupt end with the outbreak of . Relations between But what was Klee's relationship to American culture? His intellec- artists and collectors from lhe two countries were almost com- tual and artistic consciousness was informed by the classic Western pletely severed in 1917 as the two nations became enemies battling intellectual and educational canon-even though, in the manner each other with propaganda. Under the circumstances, Herwarth of , he was wholly critical and confrontational Walden was taking a risk when he gave Feininger his first one- in his approach to it. Yet his engagement was largely with Euro- person show in the Galerie in Berlin in September 1917, pean artists and thinkers. In his creative work, in his writings- succeeding only because in Germany Feininger was not perceived some several thousand pages of them-and in his personal library as American. Once the United States entered the war, however, there are only marginal traces of any reaction to America before the artist himself came under police surveillance as an enemy alien, 1920. He mentioned Whistler (who was American by birth, to be As a reservist, Klee was drafted into the German army on sure, but was considered an English painter)28 and made passing March 11, 1916. A week before , the artist Marc, who had wel- reference to , the American icon of the Belle comed the war as an act of major renewal, had been killed at the Epoque whom Klee had seen in Rome in 1g02.29 front near Verdun. In contrast to his friend, Klee saw the war as a This relative indifference to American culture was in contrast senseless human catastrophe instigated by the great powers, and to his friends Münter and . Münter, who had visited he portrayed it in that light in his work (fiS. 7). At the same time- her relatives in Texas with her sister Emmy in 1898, encountered in a wholly different way-Marsden Hartle¡ one of the few Amer- important stimuli during her sta¡ while Macke, Klee's friend and ican abstractionists at the Armory Show in 1913, was also dealing traveling companion in Tünisia in 1914, adored the writings of Walt with the militarization of German¡where in 1912he had become Whitman and the world of the American Indian, both of which left fascinated with Kandinsky's artistic concepts. On a return lrip in their mark on his art (frS. 0). Klee's attitude was also quite unlike 1914-15,he noted the military splendor of Berlin at the beginning that of such fellow painters as , , or Rudolf of the war, and he would later transform the display of such mili- Schlichter, who were fascinated by the myth of the "Wild West" tary insignia as medals, banners, and flags into emblematic, brightþ and who saw America as a source of artistic inspiration, a screen colored paintings that absorb the abyss of war into their pattern of on which to project one's ideal of a free, selÊdirected life.30 ornamental decor (fig. 8).31

Fig.6 Fig.7 August Macke, 1z dianer find.ians], 19 I I. Oil on canvas, Paul Klee, Tittl auf dem SchlachtfeLd [Death on the BattLefiekl], 34% x 27 % tnches (88 x 70 cm). Private collection. 7914.172. Pen on paper on carclboard, 3 % x 6 % inches (9 x 17.6 cm). , Livia Klee Donation, Bern, Switzelland.

THE BECINNINCS 2. Klee's Connection with Albed Bloch, the American Blue Rider Klee's relationship with America during the war years and up until 1920 was limited to his encounters with the American painter ,who lived in Munich berween 1909 and rg2r. Bloch

\l L.- ßl trator from 1905 L\ to Ig09 after studying for a short time at St. Louis,s \ School of Fine Þ .33 Until lg12 he served as a reviewer for the journal, writing essays on the art scene in Germany. In 19l1 Bloch became acquainted with Kandinsky and Marc. They saw Blochts anti-academic, almost raw and ,,primitive,,_in the positive sense-way ofpainting as an important instance of the new "spiritual" art they meant to show in their programmatic ,,First Exhibition publish by the Blaue Reiter ersl,34 That legendary show was held in Munich's Galerie Thannhauser from _December 1g1l to January 19i2 and include d six Bloch paintings_an astonish_ ingly high number. Eight more were shown in the second Blaue Reiter exhibition held in Hans Gokz,s gallery from February to April 1912.35 By contrast, Klee was not represented at all in the first show, although he had seventeen works in the second one. Bloch later discounted this association with Munich and the Blaue Reiter.36 He did, however, value his friendship with Marc. In his reminiscences of his Munich years, Bloch wrote: ,,Only of may I say that our acquaintance deepened to some_ thing like true friendship.,,37 After Marc,s death in Verdun, Bloch drew somewhat closer to the deceased artist,s best füends, Heinrich ined the circle later, I an altogether delighr

describe Klee,s art as follows: "Perhaps Paul Klee is the strangest figure in all that group ofpainters, who were my Íüends and comrades in Munich. \4/him- sical, winsome, wayward, his little sheets of drawing and water_ color, with an occasional small picture painted in oil, look at first sight like the daubs and scrawls of a willful, destructive child_of a child neyer grown up, living alone, walled offfrom the world in some undreamt garden of wonderland, or in some forgotten corner of hell.... paul Upon me the work of Klee has from the beginning

Fig. 8 Marsden Hartle¡ The lron Cross, lglb. Oil on canvas,47 /t x 47 % inchæ (120 x 120 cm). Washington Universiry Gallery of Art, purchase, St. Louis, University Bixby Funcl, 1g52.

MICHAEL BAUMCARTNER exerted a strange fascination, as great a fascination as the man him- self, with his rare, impish humor."39 Bloch's retrospective judg-

ment of Klee as a wondrous mystic who created his works as though in a dream was influenced by the portrayal of the artist in the first monographs on him, which appeared just after the First World War, a portrayal encouraged by Klee himself.aO Early in their friendship, KIee and Bloch shared rhe rwo- ttPaul person show Klee and Albert Bloch,tt mounted in by Walden in Berlin's Galerie Der Sturm.4l The exhibition featured sixteen paintings by Bloch and forty-five watercolors, drawings, and paintings by Klee. The Berlin press responded favorably to Bloch's work, but harshly criticized Klee,s.42 Out of soÌidarity with KIee, Bloch wrote a letter of protest to Walden: "It is unbearable to me to be praised this way in contrast to Paul Klee.... I would like to protest publicly.... The only things thar

prevent me are my dread of coming forward in such a personal mat- ter and my fear of giving the impression that Paul Klee in arry way requires the assistance of others."43 Walden promptly published the letter in the April issue of his journal Der Sturm.44 As the relationship between the two artists intensifled during 'l,gI7-I8,45 the war years of Bloch's pictorial vocabulary began to approach more closely that of Klee. Bloch's paintings from these years-with their stylized plants or cipherlike trees blending with architectural elements, small houses, and churches in fantastic, often nocturnal landscapes-greatly resemble Klee,s painting of the time both in form and subject matter (figs. 9 and 10; see also Schulhaus [SchoolhouseJ 11920.23,p1. 4]). This affrnity culmi- lra .,-. ! ,L..t i 'it nated in an untitled work from 1918 that Bloch considered an "homage" to Klee, which he gave to him (fig. I2). He also presented Klee with the watercolor and pen dravøngZum Klownbild, VI [For the Clown Picture f4 Qgl4),while it is probable that Klee left Bloch three works as gifts.46 Bloch's "homage,, to KIee shows two men, two houses, and a cow in a mountain landscape, Annegret

Hoberg interprets the figure on the left, wearing a hat, as a self-por- trait of Bloch, and she suggests that he is wishing he could hold back the Paul Klee figure, with the characteristic dark beard, who has turned his back and is walking away from him. The ciphers for trees and the whitish, transparent silhouettes of the houses look as if they could have been taken from a picture by Klee. A photo- !r^ /,) ::tt!¿ 1 " \ 't/'^' /'alb/'"' graph of KIe e's atelier in Schlösschen Sure snes in Munich from

Fig. 9 Paul KJee, Lantlschaft der Vergangenheit fLandscaþe of the PastJ, 1918.44. Watercolor and gouache on papel on cardboard,ST/e x 103/a inches (22.6 x 26.3 cm). Private collection.

Fig. 10 Plrotograph from Albert Bloch's record book, vol. 2; top: Night in the

Valle2, I9l7;bottom: Desert¿d. ViIIage, 1917 .

THE BEC¡NNINCS 25 Fig.'11

Paul Klee's atelier in Schlösschen Suresnes in Munich, 1920; to the left of the door frame in the bottom row:PaulK)eerZerstörtes Dorf I D es troy d. VillageJ, 1920.130; ro rhe lefr of rhar: Albert Bloch, Untitled (Land:caþe with Tuo Men, Tuo Horces, arul a Cou),7glg

Fig.12

Albert Bloch, Untitleð. (Landscaþe uith Two fu[en, Two Houes, and a Cow), 19 18. Oil on canva s, LlY+ x 18 Ve inches (29 x 48 cm). Kunstmuseum Bern, Gift of Livia Klee.

MICHAEL BAUMGARTNER NOTES 1920 (fig. ll) shows how much Klee valued Bloch's present, for I. Eddy wrote to tlìe Gertnan arlist Gabriele Münter, Vasily Kandinsky's lifetirne corn- panion and a friend ofPaul and Lily Klee's: "I havejust received nodce from the Amer- he hung it next to his own oilpaintingZerstörtes Dorf [Destroyd' ican Express Co. that Paul Klee has sliipped 25 watercolors. I aru sur¡rrised he sent so VittageJ (1920.130). That Klee should have placed precisely this nany because I suggested his sending only two or three for my inspection." Artbur Gabriele Münter- work next to Bloch's landscape may have had to do with the fact Jerome Eddy to Gabriele Münter,January 17, I914, undJohannes Eichner-Stiftung, Städtische Galerie irn , Munich' that Bloch usually gave titles to his pictures that reflected the hor- HansBloesch,"EinmodernelGraplikerl'DieAþen6,no'5(Januaryl9l2):264-65. rors of the war, like Deserted Village, Deserted Villa,and' Night in 2. he saw of their work al the World Columbian Exposition in the VaLLey (see fig. 10).47 3. Impressed by what Chicago in 1893, Ecldy came to admire Edouard Mane¡ and in addition to Whistler and Rodin, and would soon buy works frorn them in Paris. Around ùe Conclusion turn of the century Eddy withdrew somewhat, devoting more of his time to his owu It was after an encounter with rhe work ofArthur Dove, the The Klee works that once belonged to Eddy are now lost.48 professional advancement. first American abstractionist, and that of the Dutchman Otto van Rees that he turned the memory of the friendship Records of those works, along with his attention to modernisnr and artists like Kandinsky. between Klee and Bloch, provide the few, nearly vanished traces 4. Paul Klee, "M unchenl' Die Aþ en 6, no. 3 (November 19 I 1 ): 184. of Klee's first weak contact with America. Yet they also serve as a 5. Most of the young painters who descended on Düsseldorf then were of Gennan an- that Klee's work would prelude, as it were, to the lively appreciation cestry They lollowed in the fooßteps of such illustrious countrymen as Emanuel Leutze meet with in America in the . and Albert Bierstadt, acquiring an introduction to narrative and Iandscape painting. Lessing, Carl Ferdinand Sohn, and Eduard For Edd¡ the European avant-garde served as a stimulus to The best known ofthem were Kad Friedrich Julius. See Katharina Bott, Vice Versa: Deutsche Maler in Ameriha/Ameríhanische net result is that American art has received American artists: "The Maler in Deutschland, 1813-1913,exìr. cat' (Munich: Deutsches Histolisches Museum, another impulse forward; it will do bigger and finer and saner 1996), 11-16. the things. It will not copy the eccentricities, the exaggerations, 6. "The Düsseldorfschool commanded the tnarket, and I think ofits exhibition as now 19I0] to such morbid enthusiasms of fEurope], because America as yet is not firmly seated, going on fron year to year New York,judging [in anotlìertute,musrhavebeenabravepatronofthatmanufacture;... thoughofwhat given to eccentricities and morbidness-though it may be to a particular sacriflces to the pure plastic or undraped shocks to bourgeois prejudice the youthful habit of exaggeration. America is essentially sane and comfortable German genius of that period may have been capable history has kept no healthful-say quite practical-in its outlook, hence it will absorb record." HenryJanes,ASmaIIBoyan¡JOthers (NewYork:CharlesScribner'sSons, 1e 13), 266. all that is good in the extreme modern movement and reject what is bad."49 7. Frorn1820tolg20,inwhathasbeencalledthe"centuryofimmigration,"5'5mil- ttgood" lion emigrated to Anerica. The first surge came in the period after the rev- That willingness to absorb the in the European avant- oludonary upheaval of 1848, followed by another in the years belween 1880 and 1890' garde led both to Bloch's modernist-influenced paintings during when roughly 1.5 nillion German imrnigrants entered the country Recent research to America between 1813 his German sojourn, and to the early and tentative appreciation for has determined that 1,336 artists enigrated frotn Germany and I913. See Bort, II. the works of Klee on the part of collectors like Eddy. Inde ed it was 8. In adclition to Duveneck and Currier, a number of other famous Amelican ar[ists in part his unshakable optimism and faith in progress that enabled belonged to the Municli "American Artists' Club" in the closing years of lhe nineteenth the unconventional in art, and that would Eddy to risk embracing centur¡ including John White Alexander, Otto Henry Bacher, William Merritt H' make a subsequent understanding of Klee in America possible' Chase,Josepli DeCam¡r,Julius Roishoven,Joseph H' Sharp,Walter Shirlaw,John

THE BEGINNINGS 27 Thachtrnan, TheocÌore Wendel, and Theodore Wores. Most of them returned to the However', Vivian Barnett maintaìns that at drat point Kandinsþ was not even in Munich. United States in tlie I880s or 1890s, bringing back with them a free approach to paint- Vivian Barnett,l{and,inshy: Watercolors and Drawings (Munich: Prestel, I992), 45. ing that spalked violent controversy even belore the appearance of the Impressionists. lT. "SecondGroupExhibitionj'GalerieNeueKmtHmGoltz,Mmich,AprilS 10,1913. Currier, Duveneck, and Chase, as t¡pical re¡rresentatives of the Munich avant-garde, were thetargetofbitterattacksbytheNewYorkpress. TheresultingfurorledAmerican 18. ArthurJeromeEddytoPaulKlee,FebruarylT, lg14,ArchiveoftheZentrumPaul art dealers and collectors to shifr their attention away from Düsseldorf to the Munich Klee, Bern, Switzerland.

scene; dre im¡rortant art dealel Smuel P. Avery begn to regular'þvisit dre Bavarìan metro- 19. Eddy Êrst selecled eleven works frorn the trvo shipments and offered KIee 400 marks polis on his lrips to Europe. Close ties between American painters and Munich's art for the lot, which was the arnount he hacÌ forvarded to the artist as an advance payment scene also stinulated the rnarke I for the works of their models and teachers. Chase, for in February. From the entry in his handwritten oeuvre catalogue, it is clear that Klee exarnple, bought works by , Wilheln von Kaulbach, Ludwig Knaus, and did not agree to the lump sun offer and insisted on the prices he had set for the various Eduard Grützner for his patron Samuel A. CoaleJr., as well as two Wilhelrn Leibl woL.ks genres. For his part, Eddy was unwilling to pay rlore than 400 marks total, and after for himself. America's appreciation for German art in the late nineteenth century par- receiving Klee's price list, he lirnited himself to six works, sending back dre rest. Arthur alleled its respect for Gernran universities. Jerorne Eddy to Paul Klee, February 17, 1914, and April 20, 19 t4, Archive of the Zenhurn 9. See Paul KJee,Tagebücher 1898-19)8,ed,. Wolfgang Kersten (/Teufen, Paul Klee. Tlre six works were: Der Kürctler (Dichtemaler) [The Artist (Poet-Painter)] Gernany: Paul Klee-Stiftung, Kunstrnuseum Bern, 1988), entries 70, 79, and 409. Few (1908.72); Steinhauer II (getont) [Stonecutters II (tinted)J Q9I0.7a); Du Hatr an d.er docurnents track KarûrnÌle's artistic activity in New York. In the t9IOs his nante turned Brüche [The House fu the Bridge] (1911.58); Parheingang (Seiteneingang) [Entrance up in the cataìogues of Martin Birnbaum's exhibitions at dre Berlin Photographic Corn- to the Parh (Sid,e Entrance)l (1913.74);Bei Bem [Near Bem (Wittighofen)] (1913.96); pany. Some of his works later found their way into the Museum of the City of New and Fenst¿rausblich (A.[ünchen) [View from a Wind.ow (Munich)] (1913.125). York. His best-krown workis úte fiesco Labor,painted for the Harlem Court in New 20. Ecldy wrote: "I have tried to make the selection in such a way that the individual York around 1938. phases in your work are represented." Arthur Jerorne Eddy to Paul Klee, April 29, 10. For example, at the St. Louis Worlcl's Fair (Louisiana Purchase Exhibition) in 1904, 1914, Archive of the Zentrun Paul Klee. the only rnoderately progressive German artist admitted was AdolIHölzel. The Berlin 2l. Artlrur Jerorn e Eddy, Atbists and, Post-Imþressíonism (Chicago: A. C. McClurg, and Munich Secessions were first shown in New York in 1909, in the Metropoìitan 1914),88 and tt4. Museum of Art exhibition "Conremporary German Art." Financed by the Gernan-

Anerican businessman and collector Hugo Reisinger, the show featured the works of 22. See also Susan J. Nurse, "Arthur Jerome Eddy: Patron of " (master's Wilheln Leibl, , , Arnold Böck1in, Max Klinger, thesis, State Univer sity of New York at Buffalo, 199 4), 37 58. and Franz yon Stuck. See Penny Joy Bealle, "Obstacles and Advocates: Factors Influ- 23. Eddy, Cztbists and, Post-Imþressionism, ll4, encing the Introduction of Modern Art from Ge rmany to New York Cit¡ I9t2 33: Major Prornoters and Exhibitions" (Ph.D. diss., Cornell Universiry Ithaca, New Yor.k, 24. Reprodnced in Eddy, Cubish and, Post-Inrþressionism, 88. 1990),40 4e. 25, Edcly, Cult i s ts an d, Po s t- Imþ r es s io nis m, 123, 11. Tlie exhibition traveled in l9 13 to Buffalo, New York, and Chicago. 26. Edd¡ Ct¿bists and Poshlmþressionism,l23. 12. Martin Birnbann,Catalogue of an Exhibition of Contemþoraty Geman Graþhic 27 . Eddy, Cubists and Post-Imþressionism,2. Ar t, exh. cat. (New Yort: Berlin Photographic Cornpan¡ 19 I3), 3.

28. Klee, Tagebücher (no. 644), 493 and 5 12. 13. Martin Birnbaum,The Last Romantic: The Stor2 of fu[ore than a Half,Century in the World of Art (New York: Twayne, 1960), 52. 29. Klee, Tagebücher (no. 403).

14. Stieglitz's parents wele frorn Hessen. Stieglitz graduated from high school in tlie 30. See EnaisioningAmerica: Prints, Drawings and Photograþhs b2 George Grosz United States and tlìen went to Germany to study rnechanical.engineering, but soon and, Hís Contemþoraries l9l5 1933,exb. cat. (Cambridge, Mass.: Busch-Reisinger switched to photography. He had Êrst been mainly interested in the French avant-garde. Museurn, Harvard Universiry Art Museums, 1990). On lús rcguìar trips to Europe, he was one ofthe Êrst to appreciate dre padrbLeaking artis- 31. SeealsoPatriciaMcDomell,PaztíngBerlinStories:MarcdmHartlry¡OscarBluem- tic departure ofKandinsky. In 1912 he translated a passage from Kandinsky's Concem- na', and, thz FûstAmericanAuant-Garde inExþtzsioníslBerlz (NewYork: P.Lmg2003). ing the 9þiritual in Art (1971) for his quarterly Camera Worh.,having presumably bouglrt tlre book in Germany dre previous winter'. Cam¿t.a Worh 19 (July l912): 34. 32. SeeAnnegretHobergandHemyAdams,eds.,llbertBloch:Eínamerihanischet. Blauer Reíter,exÌrt cat. (Munich: St?idtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, 1997), 54, note 5. 15. Paul Knrty, "ArthurJerome Eddy and His Collection: Prelude and Postscript to A snaller exhibition, "A.lbert Bloch: The American Blue Rider;" traveled to the Nelson tlie Armory Show," Arts At[agazine 61 (February 1987):40-47, At the Armory Show, Alkins Museurn of Art, Kansas Ciry Missouri,January 26 to March 16, 1994. See Frank of which he was a felent advocate, Eddy bought wolks by Marcel Ducharnp, Emilie Baron, Helmut Arntzen, and David Cateforis, eds.,llbert Bloch: Artistíc and Literarl Charn¡ , André Derain, , Leon Kroll, E. M. Manigault, Percþectiues, exh. cat. (Law'ence, Kan: Mx Kade Center for Gemran-American Studies, , Segonaz, Amadeo de Sousa-Cardoza, W L. Täylor,Jacques Villon, Mau- University of Kansas; and Munich: Prestel, 1997). rice de Vlaminck, and Eclouard Vuillard. IGury, 43. 33. Bloch's portraits for the Mirror attest to his strong interest in the caricatules in 16. According to Carter Harrison, "Eddy swept the [Kandinsky] srudio clean." Carter Munich's satirical nagazine SimþIicr'ssizzs, ruost apparent in his appro¡rriations from Harrison, Grouing Uþ With Chicago (Chicago: Ralph Fletcher Seymour, 1944), 216. the styles of Olaf Gulblansson and Thomas Theodor Heine.

2A MICHAEL BAUMCARTNER 34. In Munich Bloch first adopted the highly simplifìed, alnost posterlike slyle of he had a retrospective show in Munich, at the Reich. He is striving and struggling very painters like and Adolf Erbslöh. hard-has worked a lot. I see him now and then." Lily Klee to Marianne von Werefkin, August 22, 1918, Lietuvos Nacionaliné Martyno biblioteka, Vilnius; quoted in 35. AlongwithMarsdenHartle¡whospentthefirstyearsofthewarinBerlin,Bloch Annekatlirin Merges-Knoth, "Marìanne Werefkins russische Wurzeln Neuansätze zur was one of the most irnportant American modernists working in Germany. Interpretation ihres künsderischen Welkes" (inaugural diss., University of Tiier; 1996).

36. In 1955 he described Marc and Kandinsþ's invitation to take ¡raÉ in dre Blaue Reiter I am grateful to Osamu Okuda for this reference. exhibitions as a misunderstanding: "The point of Marc's and Kandinsþ's misconce¡rtion 46. They were: Pferd.erennen I [Horse Race I] (1911.47), Landschaft mit Bergen about me was simply that they believed in all good faith that I was a 'modern,' that it [Landscaþe uith Mountains] (1917,139), and Ein Knabe in jungem Wald [A Bo1 in was ny arnbition to paint'modernist'pictures, whereas I desired to do no such thing. 'fòun g Fo r æ tl (1920.16). I was not a modern in any real sense oÊ the word. . . . I was in actual fact . . . a tradition- alist to the core." Albert Bloch to Edward Maser',June 20, 1955; reproduced in Hoberg 47. Blocli destroyed many of the works he produced in 19 17-18, but he docurnented and Adans,204. the majority of them in photographs in his "record books." Klee could be critical of Bloch's painting, as is indicated by his comments on Bìoch's one-person show in the 37. Albert Bloch, quoted in Hoberg and Adams,206. Kunsthaus Reich in Munich lrom March to April I9I8. In a letter to his wife, Lil¡ Klee 38. Bloch, quoted in Hoberg and Adams,207. wrote: "The exhibition in the'Reich'for exarnple, turned out better than I expected. Only Bloch once again hung in tlie lelt corner opposite the entrance some colored fool- 39. Bloch, quoted in Hoberg and Adarns,204. ishness of the kind that only a person who understands little about color can ¡rroduce. 40. See , Paul KIee, Junge Kunst 13 (, Germany: Wro can make an exhibition? Tliat is one of the most diffrcult things of all. Kandin- Klinkhardt & Biemann, 1920); and LeopoldZahn,Paul Klee: Leben, Werh, Geist (Pots- skycoulddoit." PaulKlee toLilyKlee,May I,l9IS,Archiveof theZentrumPaulKlee; dam, Germany: Gustav Kiepenheuer, I920). reprinted in Paul Klee,Briefe an d.ie Familie 1893-1940, ed. Felix Klee, vol. 2 (Cologne: DuMont, I979),918. 4L "Paul Klee und Albert Bloch.39. Ausstellung" was lield at Galerie Der Sturm, Berlin, in March 1916. 48. Eddydiedofacuteappendicitisinlg20. PartofhiscollectionwenttotheArtln- stitute of Chicago. The six works by Klee were still in the possession of the family until 42. See Oscar Bie, "Bildende Kunst: Von Spitzweg bis in den Futurismus. Kunst- the early , but since then there is no trace of then. See The Arthur Jerome Edd1 ausstellungen,"-Berliner Biirsen-Courier 48 (March 5, 1916): lst insert, Tf. Coll¿ction of lV[od.ern Paintings and Sculþture, exh. cat. (Chicago: Art Institute of 43, Albert Bloch to Hemth Walden, Mach 29, l 16; quoted in Hobeqg md Adans, 69 70. Chicago, l93l); and Exhibition of Paintings from the Collection of the Late Arthur Jerome Ed.þ,exh. cat. (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 1922). 44. Der Sturm 7,no. I (April 1916): 11. 49. Eddy, Cubists and. Post-Imþressionism,3. 45. A passage frorn a letter from Lily Klee to Madanne von Werefkin shows that she, too, participated in the friendship with Bloch: "Bloch asks me to send you greetings

THE BECINNINCS 29