Watercolour and oil paint on paper
Tate Collection
Works with images
General Collection
Collection
<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/paul-klee-1417" aria-label="More by Paul Klee" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">Paul Klee</a>
Theyre Biting
Purchased 1946
abstraction
adults
animals: fish and aquatic life
astronomy
boat, sailing
figure
fish
fishing
from recognisable sources
landscape
leisure and pastimes
people
sea
seascapes and coasts
society
sport
sun
transport: water
paper unique watercolour oil paint
1 January 2002 – 31 March 2002
2002-03-31
1 January 2002 – 31 March 2002
2002-03-31
2002-01-01
Hayward Gallery (London, UK)
http://www.hayward-gallery.org.uk
2002-01-01
Paul Klee: Main Ways and Byways
Loan-out
16 October 2013 – 9 March 2014
2014-03-09
14 October 2013 – 9 March 2014
2014-03-09
2013-10-14
Tate Modern (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/modern/
2013-10-16
The EY Exhibition - Paul Klee: Making Visible
Exhibition
18 November 2016 – 12 March 2017
2017-03-12
18 November 2016 – 12 March 2017
2017-03-12
2016-11-18
Zentrum Paul Klee (Bern, Switzerland)
http://www.zpk.org
2016-11-18
Paul Klee and the Surrealists
Loan-out
They’re Biting
support: 311 × 235 mm
Purchased 1946
<p><b>Paul Klee</b><span> 1879-1940 </span>
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<p><span><a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/klee-theyre-biting-n05658" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N05658</span></a> </span><b>They're biting</b><span> 1920 </span>
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<p><span>Inscribed 'Klee' t.r.; '1920. Sie beissen an' on mount b.l.; 'Priv [?] 1920/6' on second mount b.l. and '56' b.r.</span>
<br/><span>Watercolour over oil-colour drawing on paper, 12 ¼ x 9 ¼ (31 x 23.5)</span>
<br/><span>Purchased from Frau Lily Klee (Knapping Fund) 1946</span>
<br/><i>Exh:</i><span>
</span><i>Paul Klee</i><span>, Galerie Neue Kunst-Hans Goltz, Munich, May-June 1920 (238) as '1920/6 Sie beissen an'; [? </span><i>Paul Klee</i><span>, Galerie Vavin-Raspail, Paris, October-November 1925 (38) as '</span><span>Ç</span><span>a mord!']; </span><i>Paul Klee 1879-1940</i><span>, National Gallery, London, December 1945-February 1946 (41); </span><i>Paul Klee 1879-1940</i><span>, Arts Council touring exhibition, 1946 (13)</span>
<br/><i>Lit:</i><span>
Felix Klee (ed.), </span><i>The Diaries of Paul Klee 1898-1918</i><span> (London 1965), p.415; Jurgen Glaesemer, </span><i>Paul Klee: Handzeichnungen I</i><span>
(Bern 1973), pp.258, 260, repr. p.259, preliminary drawing repr. No.660, p.276</span>
<br/><i>Repr:</i><span>
</span><i>Horizon</i><span>, XII, 1945, facing p.416 in colour; </span><i>Studio</i><span>, CXXXVIII, 1949, p.69 in colour </span>
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<p><span>Klee began to make what he called 'Ölfarbzeichnungen' (oil-colour <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/d/drawing" title="Glossary definition for 'Drawing'"><span>drawings</span></a>) in 1919, transferring his preliminary drawing to another sheet of <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/paper" title="Glossary definition for 'Paper'"><span>paper</span></a> by means of a tracing technique which has been described by Jurgen Glaesemer (op. cit.) as follows: 'He painted thin Japan paper with black oil paint, and when the paint was sufficiently dry, he placed a sheet like a tracing paper under the drawing and traced the contours of the drawing through with a metal needle. As a result the paper below showed not only the outline of the drawing in a new way, but also the deliberately distributed patches and structures of the oil paint made by the rubbing or the placing of the hand during the tracing process'. His first drawings made in this way were left uncoloured, but he afterwards used many drawings of this type as the basis for <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/w/watercolour" title="Glossary definition for 'Watercolour'"><span>watercolours</span></a>. </span>
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<p><span>The preliminary drawing in lead <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/g/graphite" title="Glossary definition for 'Graphite'"><span>pencil</span></a> for this particular work is in the Paul Klee Foundation at the Kunstmuseum, Bern. It is dated 1919 and is inscribed on the mount '1919 | 255 "Sie beissen an!" (zu 1920/6)'. The outlines show the marks of the needle used in the tracing. The final drawing follows the study closely, apart from a few very minor adjustments, the only major difference being the addition of the exclamation mark in the centre. </span>
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<p><span>Felix Klee recalls in his appendix to his father's </span><i>Diaries</i><span>
that they spent their holidays in the period </span><i>c.</i><span>1919-21 at Possenhofen on the Starnberger See, and that Klee spent much of his time there fishing. For a discussion of Klee's <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/painting" title="Glossary definition for 'Painting'"><span>paintings</span></a> of fish, including works of a more symbolic and complex kind, see the article by Richard Verdi, 'Paul Klee's "Fish Magic": an Interpretation' in </span><i>Burlington Magazine</i><span>, CXVI, 1974, pp.147-54; this work is reproduced on p.155. </span>
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<p><b>Published in:</b>
<br/><span>Ronald Alley, </span><i>Catalogue of the Tate Gallery's Collection of Modern Art other than Works by British Artists</i><span>, Tate Gallery and Sotheby Parke-Bernet, London 1981, pp.386-7, reproduced p.386</span>
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Catalogue entry
2004-09-15T00:00:00
catalogue-entry
CATALOGUE_ENTRY
abstraction adults animals: fish and aquatic life astronomy boat, sailing figure fish fishing from recognisable sources landscape leisure and pastimes people sea seascapes and coasts society sport sun transport: water