Born in 1897 in Switzerland to musician parents. He was skilled at the violin from a young age, and at 11 years old became a part time member of the city orchestra. However, although his parents wished for him to follow a musician’s path, Klee himself found more interest in literature and painting. Immediately after graduating high school in 1898, he moved to Germany where he began to attend the Academy of Fine Arts, Munich.

Married in 1906. He was a househusband to his piano teacher wife, taking care of chores and the children as he worked on his unique expression and art theory at home. In 1914, took a trip to Tunisia with his friend. After this, his paintings experienced a great shift from “line drawings” to “color”. WWI began the same year, and he was drafted as a soldier, but continued to make art, and eventually made a name for himself with exhibitions held around the region.

After Germany’s defeat in 1919 came the creation of Bauhaus, the art school which combined crafts and fine arts. Klee and his friend Wassily Kandinsky joined Bauhaus as teachers. In 1933, Hitler took total control of the German government. Hitler put great pressure on the avant-garde, and Klee and his wife fled to Switzerland the same year. In the country where he was born and raised, Klee continued to paint despite a difficult lifestyle and illnesses as he aged, and he leaves behind many large works that he was unable to make in Germany.