Highways and Byways
1929 · Oil on canvas · Museum Ludwig, Cologne
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About this work
- Artist
- Paul Klee (1879–1940)
- Year
- 1929
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Original size
- 83.5 × 67.5 cm
- Collection
- Museum Ludwig, Cologne
- Movement
- Bauhaus
A broad central path of horizontal stripes runs up the canvas toward a band of blue and violet at the top, its fields of orange, pale blue, cream and green narrowing as they rise; on either side, smaller, more irregular strips twist and branch, some ending in nothing. The effect is of terraced fields, a road and a stepped pyramid at once. Klee painted it in January 1929, just after his journey to Egypt, and it is one of the largest of his layer and stripe pictures, which drew on the strips of cultivated land he had seen along the Nile. He scratched most of the lines into a fresh plaster ground before painting, some with a ruler, most freehand. It is regarded as a key work of his Dessau years. The painting is in the Museum Ludwig in Cologne.
This exhibition-poster edition shows the whole work beneath original typography set in-house. The original is in the public domain.
Where it works
Stripes of orange, pale blue, cream and green climbing to a blue horizon, for a hallway, staircase or home office at 16×24 in natural wood. A sand, pale blue or white wall; it pairs with Southern Gardens.
Style, size & framing detail
- Style
- Exhibition poster of a Bauhaus painting
- Era
- 20th century (1929)
- Orientation
- Portrait
- Palette
- cream & beige
- Mood
- classic
- Rooms
- hallway or entryway, home office, living room, dining room, dorm room
- Good gift for
- housewarming, art lovers
Size. We'd hang this one at 16×24. Prints at 12×18, 16×24, 24×36 in — 12×18 for a shelf, desk or a gallery-wall grid; 16×24 above a desk, console or in a hallway; 24×36 as the statement piece above a sofa or bed.
Framing. Exhibition posters sit best in a slim black frame with no mat — the typeset margin is the mat.
Pairing. Pairs as a set of three with other famous painting prints (10% off three or more).
Details & materials
Shipping & returns
Is this the whole painting, or a crop?
Is Highways and Byways in the public domain?
What is it printed on?
When was Highways and Byways painted, and in what medium?
What size works above a sofa or bed?
About this design
The Madten promise
A fine-art print
The same artwork as a clean fine-art print — the image shown large with a minimal caption.
