Persian Nightingales

Paul Klee made Persian Nightingales in 1917 while serving in the German military during the First World War. He had an office job that still gave him some time to make art. The title may come from the poems of Hafiz, a Persian poet who often wrote about nightingales and roses. Klee had also seen a major exhibition of Islamic art in Munich in 1910. He made this work with several materials, including watercolor, ink, paint, and pencil. Klee carefully recorded it as number 92 in his personal list of works from 1917.