Fruits on Red Paul Klee Buy Art Prints Now
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Tom Gurney BSc (Hons) is an art history expert with over 20 years experience
Published on June 19, 2020 / Updated on October 14, 2023
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Paul Klee's Expressionist piece Fruits on Red will immediately captivate people who like subjects pertaining to the natural world.

The artist has chosen to focus on the beauty of fruits at a stage of full ripening. He knows how appealing this subject must be to the senses and he uses rich shades of red to full advantage here.

In this piece, viewers can look forward to exploring their relationship with colour in the objects that they come across very day. These are objects like bananas, pears and persimmons.

All of these are filled with the potential to give life but they are not really noticed in the way that the artist has paid attention to them here. It is a still life but not one that uses Realism as its basis. Klee is examining the way that the colours in typical objects affect those who look at them.

His deep exploration of the fruits lead to further examination of the things which are normally passed by without a moment's thought each day. While the title of Fruits on Red may initially bring a red background to mind, the artist has not chosen to paint that. He has painted his reaction to seeing what was physically in front of him.

Klee uses watercolours to create an appealing wash in the background which is mainly orange. Several vertical and horizontal lines are used throughout the painting. These may be meant to suggest branches. Since Klee is not overly fond of Realism, he may have chosen to do this in order to make the viewer think of freshness.

The fruits in his still life are not only rich with life but are also fresh from the tree. That means they have not been sitting on a table somewhere, separated from the source. Instead, they serve to form a direct connection with nature and life.

Klee uses music in the painting to add further to the beauty of the scene. He has included a treble clef which, while small, immediately makes the viewer think of songs in the air. It may be small in order to infer that it is music in the background and not an overwhelming sound. It may be birds calling to each other or other natural sounds.