The Malady
Paul Klee
1926
- Medium
- Watercolor, with stippling, pen and black ink, blue pencil, and bands of mauve gouache, on ivory laid paper, laid down on ivory wove card
- Dimensions
- Primary support: 29.3 × 30.2 cm (11 9/16 × 11 15/16 in.); Secondary support: 39.4 × 38.7 cm (15 9/16 × 15 1/4 in.)
- Genre
- prints and drawing
- Museum
- Art Institute of Chicago
Tags
drawings (visual works)pen and ink drawingsprints and drawingwatercolorpaper (fiber product)
About
While this watercolor may initially appear completely abstract, upon closer inspection a figure emerges from the layered forms. A body has been shaped from parallel lines, which give the appearance of exposed musculature. The figure appears trapped by the approaching darkness on all sides, and a single drop of blood falls from his mouth as another threatens to fall from above. The pain of the subject is palpable: the cross on the left, a symbol of the Crucifixion, enhances this sense of suffering.
