Sommeil d'Hiver (Winter's Sleep) from the Four Seasons series.

Paul Klee

Paul Klee created this work for inclusion in the new Parisian art and literary quarterly Verve. The works of art included in the publication, by leading modern artists around the world, were printed at the famed Atelier Mourlot in Paris.

On the verso of this print is a Joan Miro lithograph that incorporates the title of the work and Klee's name. It is presumed that, with the inevitable onset of world war, and with Klee's declining health, he could not travel to Paris to oversee the printing of this work at Mourlot. Miro, who spent much of the 1930s at the atelier, may have done so in his stead.

In this work Klee depicts winter as a sleeping woman whose round belly, encompassing a red heart, anticipates the arrival of spring. He's chosen warm pinks and peach tones contrasted by cerulean blue to disspell the gloom of the coldest time of year.