Editing Paul Klee (section)

== Early life and training ==
{{quote|First of all, the art of living; then as my ideal profession, poetry and philosophy, and as my real profession, [[plastic arts]]; in the last resort, for lack of income, illustrations.|Paul Klee<ref>Gualtieri Di San Lazzaro, ''Klee'', Praeger, New York, 1957, p. 16</ref>}}

Paul Klee was born in [[Münchenbuchsee]], Switzerland, as the second child of German music teacher Hans Wilhelm Klee (1849–1940) and Swiss singer Ida Marie Klee, born Frick (1855–1921).{{Ref label|fn_1|a|a}} His sister Mathilde (died 6 December 1953) was born on 28 January 1876 in [[Walzenhausen]]. Their father came from [[Tann, Hesse|Tann]] and studied singing, piano, organ and violin at the [[State University of Music and Performing Arts Stuttgart|Stuttgart Conservatory]], where he met his future wife Ida Frick. Hans Wilhelm Klee was active as a music teacher at the Bern State Seminary in [[Hofwil]] near Bern until 1931. Klee was able to develop his music skills as his parents encouraged and inspired him throughout his life.<ref>Rudloff, p. 65</ref>

In 1880, his family moved to Bern, where they eventually, in 1897, after a number of changes of residence, moved into their own house in the {{ill|Kirchenfeld, Bern|de|Kirchenfeld (Bern)|lt=Kirchenfeld district}}.<ref>Baumgartner, p. 199</ref> From 1886 to 1890, Klee visited primary school and received, at the age of 7, violin classes at the [[Musikschule Konservatorium Bern|Municipal Music School]]. He was so talented on violin that, aged 11, he received an invitation to play as an extraordinary member of the Bern Music Association.<ref>Giedion-Welcker, pp. 10–11</ref> His other hobbies, drawing and writing poems, were not fostered in the same way as music was.<ref>{{cite web|title=Paul Klee|url=https://www.theartstory.org/artist/klee-paul/|access-date=9 August 2022}}</ref>

[[File:Paul Klee My Room 1896.jpg|thumb|left|''My Room'' (German: Meine Bude), 1896. Pen and ink wash, {{convert|4+3/4|by|7+1/2|in|mm|abbr=on|order=flip}}. In the collection of the Klee Foundation, [[Bern, Switzerland]]]]
In his early years, following his parents' wishes, Klee focused on becoming a musician; but he decided on the [[visual arts]] during his teen years, partly out of rebellion and partly because modern music lacked meaning for him. He stated, "I didn't find the idea of going in for music creatively particularly attractive in view of the decline in the history of musical achievement."<ref name="Partsch, p. 9">Partsch, p. 9</ref> As a musician, he played and felt emotionally bound to traditional works of the [[Classical period (music)|eighteenth]] and [[Romantic music|nineteenth]] centuries, but as an artist he craved the freedom to explore radical ideas and styles.<ref name="Partsch, p. 9"/> At sixteen, Klee's landscape drawings already show considerable skill.<ref name="Kagan, p. 54">Kagan p. 54</ref>

Around 1897, Klee started his diary, which he kept until 1918, and which has provided scholars with valuable insight into his life and thinking.<ref>Partsch, p. 7</ref> During his school years, he avidly drew in his school books, in particular drawing [[caricatures]], and already demonstrating skill with line and volume.<ref name="Partsch, p. 10">Partsch, p. 10</ref> He barely passed his final exams at the "Gymnasium" of Bern, where he qualified in the [[Humanities]]. With his characteristic dry wit, he wrote, "After all, it's rather difficult to achieve the ''exact'' minimum, and it involves risks."<ref name="Kagan, p. 22">Kagan, p. 22</ref> On his own time, in addition to his deep interests in music and art, Klee was a great reader of literature, and later a writer on [[art theory]] and [[aesthetics]].<ref name="Jardi, p. 8">Jardi, p. 8</ref>

With his parents' reluctant permission, in 1898 Klee began studying art at the [[Academy of Fine Arts, Munich|Academy of Fine Arts]] in [[Munich]] with [[Heinrich Knirr]] and [[Franz von Stuck]].  He excelled at drawing but seemed to lack any natural color sense.  He later recalled, "During the third winter I even realized that I probably would never learn to paint."<ref name="Kagan, p. 22"/> During these times of youthful adventure, Klee spent much time in pubs and had affairs with lower-class women and artists' models. He had an illegitimate son in 1900 who died several weeks after birth.<ref name="Partsch, p. 11">Partsch, p. 11</ref>

After receiving his Fine Arts degree, Klee traveled in Italy from October 1901 to May 1902<ref>Olga's Gallery [http://www.abcgallery.com/K/klee/kleebio.html Paul Klee]</ref> with friend [[Hermann Haller (sculptor)|Hermann Haller]]. They visited Rome, Florence, Naples and the Amalfi Coast, studying the master painters of past centuries.<ref name="Partsch, p. 11"/> He exclaimed, "The [[Roman Forum|Forum]] and the [[Holy See|Vatican]] have spoken to me.  [[Humanism]] wants to suffocate me."<ref>Jardi, p. 9</ref> He responded to the colors of Italy, but sadly noted, "that a long struggle lies in store for me in this field of color."<ref name="Kagan, p. 23">Kagan, p. 23</ref> For Klee, color represented the optimism and nobility in art, and a hope for relief from the pessimistic nature he expressed in his black-and-white grotesques and satires.<ref name="Kagan, p. 23"/> Returning to Bern, he lived with his parents for several years, and took occasional art classes. By 1905, he was developing some experimental techniques, including drawing with a needle on a blackened pane of glass, resulting in fifty-seven works including his ''Portrait of My Father'' (1906).<ref name="Partsch, p. 10"/> In the years 1903–05 he also completed a cycle of eleven zinc-plate [[etching]]s called ''Inventions'', his first exhibited works, in which he illustrated several grotesque characters.<ref name="Partsch, p. 11"/><ref>''[http://artinvestment.ru/en/news/exhibitions/20090418_paul_klee_inventions.html “Invention” Paul Klee at the Museum of Contemporary Art San Francisco]'' ARTinvestment.RU – 18 April 2009</ref> He commented, "though I'm fairly satisfied with my etchings I can't go on like this.  I'm not a specialist."<ref>Jardi, p. 10</ref> Klee was still dividing his time with music, playing the violin in an orchestra and writing concert and theater reviews.<ref name="Partsch, p. 12">Partsch, p. 12</ref>