Paul Klee and the Energetics-Atomistics Controversy

K. Porter Aichele

Leonardo, Volume 26, Number 4, August 1993, pp. 309-315 (Article)

Published by The MIT Press

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https://muse.jhu.edu/article/606704/summary

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HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE
Paul Klee and the Enerqetics-
-
C
Atomistics Controversy
A he Diaries kept by Paul Klee (1879-1940) tell
the reader what the artist wanted posterity to know about his
methodical pursuit of a personal artistic identity and his richly
varied intellectual interests. Written in language that ranges
from lyrical to laconic, the Diaries are a partially untapped
mine of factual information and obscure allusions. The follow-
ing statement typically condenses Klee’s activity during a peri-
od of several months into a single sentence: “Concurrently,
attempts at mediation with the outer world were made,
1911/41, 1911/42, 43, etc., but then the sciences brought a
diversion, while for the time being nothing happened with
Candide, except struggling and more struggling” [ 11. The
series of numbers refers to catalogue notations of portrait stud-
ies dating from 1911, and the title Candide refers to Voltaire’s
masterpiece of satirical prose, which Klee was then attempting
to illustrate. After completing the Candide illustrations in 1912,
Klee produced a group of drawings that are radically different
from the drawings depicting Voltaire’s characters-in their fig-
ure types and in the way figures are shown in motion. There is
reason to propose that both of these styles of drawing were
influenced by the scientific “diversion”to which Klee alluded
in his Diaries. The precise nature of this diversion remains tan-
talizingly elusive, but visual and circumstantial evidence sug-
gest that Klee was aware of the energetics-atomistics
controversy that had been brewing since the late nineteenth
century and the experiments that resolved it in 1909. This
essay will explore the speculation that Klee’s Candide illustra-
tions visually exemplify the fundamental premise of Wilhelm
Ostwald’s doctrine of energetics, whereas the later drawings
incorporate the diagrams used by Jean Perrin to illustrate his
experimental proof of molecular motion and atomic theory.
KLEE ON ART AND SCIENCE
Klee’s interest in the physical sciences is amply documented in
his theoretical and pedagogical writings. For example, he fre-
quently invoked the phenomenon of energy to draw compar-
isons between the generative forces that exist in nature and
the basic structural components of art. In his “CreativeCredo,”
written in 1918 and published in 1920, Klee noted that inter-
nal stability is achieved in a work of art by establishing a
dynamic balance between “complementary energies” [2]. The
same theme recurs in notes for one of his lectures at the
Bauhaus, where he taught from 1921 to 1931. Instructing his
students on the form-generating potential of line, Klee equat-
ed complementary energies with linear movements in two
directions [3].
Analogies such as these perpetuated a German rhetorical tra-
dition that linked artistic and scientific concepts. Among the
finest examples of this tradition were Carl Gustav Carus’s Nine
0 1993 EAST
K. Porter Aichele
Letters on Landscape Painting [4].
Carus, a physician and amateur
painter, conceived a theory of land-
scape painting based on the nature
philosophy espoused by Johann
Wolfgang von Goethe and F.W.J. ABSTRACT
von Schelling. Like Carus, Klee
realized that the vocabulary of sci- R u I Klee‘s illustrations to Voltaire’s
ence could be effectively employed Candide, dating from 1911-1912, and a
to explore and elucidate artistic group of his “protoCubW drawings complet-
concepts. Klee was also aware that ed later in 1912 exemplify two different styles
of representation. The characteristic features
Carus’s German Romantic contem- of the different styles may well reflect the
poraries, including the painter influence of a scientific “diversion” mentioned
Caspar David Friedrich, had not in Kiee’s Diaries. This paper proposes that
applied the methodology of science Klee‘s Candide illustrations give visual form to
Wilhelm Ostwald‘s concept of nervous energy
to the actual practice of art. The and that the later drawings incorporate a visk
German Romantics professed the al model of kinetic energy derived from Jean
belief that art evolves according to Perrin’s diagram of Brownian trajectories.
the same creative principles that
govern nature, but this conviction
was based on philosophical inquiry rather than empirical proof.
In a conscious effort to validate theory with experimentally
grounded proof, Klee applied scientific models to the making
and teaching of art. Emulating scientific methodology, he docu-
mented the results of his experiments with various techniques
and processes in his Diaries and Bauhaus notebooks. These writ-
ten records facilitated replication and collectively constituted
the foundation of a new pedagogical system; most importantly,
they were often the genesis of Klee’s creative activity [5].
If Klee’s use of metaphorical analogies presupposes his
familiarity with a common rhetorical tradition, his predisposi-
tion to scientific methodology reflects the pervasive influence
of positivism during the time he was completing his gymnasium
studies in Bern, Switzerland. As formulated by the French
philosopher and mathematician Auguste Comte, positivism
was an epistemological doctrine that accorded superiority to
scientific knowledge over theological belief or metaphysical
speculation. The popularizers of Comtian positivism advocat-
ed the application of scientific methodology to problems in
every sphere of human activity, from industrial labor to physi-
cal education [6]. Klee would have been introduced to posi-
tivism in this popularized form during the last decade of the
nineteenth century, when science was hailed as a panacea for
the ills that afflicted society. By the early years of the twentieth
century, however, there was a pervasive disillusionment with
K. Porter Aichele (educator), College of Arts and Sciences, Departmentof Art, 162 McIver
Building, University of North Carolina at Greensboro,Greensboro, NC 274126001, U.S.A.
Received 25.June 1992.
LEONARD0,Vol.26, No. 4, pp. 309-315,1993 309
science for its failure to produce antici-
pated miracles.
Even as he began to experiment with
scientific models, Klee adopted a skeptical
attitude about the proper place of sci-
ence, especially as it related to art. In a
1906 entry in his Lharies, he lashed out at
the Swiss bourgeoisie for their ignorance
about artistic values. “Science,” he
observed, “is better off”; but he then
added ominously that “the worst state of
affiiirs is when science begins to concern
itself with art” [7]. Precisely what Klee
meant by this statement is unclear, but it
can be reasonably assumed that he was
remonstrating against what he would later
denounce as a “scientific check on fidelity
to nature” [S]. Whatever his objections
may have been, they did not apply to art
concerning itself with science, for Klee
freely borrowed scientific concepts and
methods, using them to challenge con-
ventional solutions and devise new
approaches to artistic problems.
m E ’ S ILLUSTRATIONS TO
VOLTAIRE’SCANDIDE
Given his interest in the physical sci-
ences, Klee would have been amused by
the lesson in experimental physics that
the philosopher Pangloss gives to a
chambermaid in the first chapter of
Candide, the best known of Voltaire’s
“contes philosophiques.” In Voltaire’s
literary hybrid, which crosses a novel of
ideas with an adventure story, the guile-
less Candide and his hapless compan-
ions are swept along on a narrative flow joints of string puppets (Fig. l ) , another
of increasingly preposterous adventures, with contours that are as malleable and
all calculated to ridicule naive optimism. elongated as stretched rubber bands
Nee chose to illustrate scenes that rein- (Fig. 2). In all 26 drawings the figures’
force the structure of Voltaire’s “conte exaggerated gestures and expressive
philosophique.” On the surface, Vol- anatomical distortions punctuate the
taire’s tale is a fast-paced adventure sto- absurdities of Voltaire’s narrative.
ry, but its real purpose is evident in a After reading Candide for the first
structure based on the contrasts between time in 1906, Klee exuded admiration
a litany of misfortunes and Candide’s for Voltaire’s trenchant wit and spirited
cheerful refrain in defense of “the best intelligence, deeming Candide “one of
of all possible worlds” [9]. Klee’s illustra- the most striking works in world litera-
tions depict a series of disastrous ture” [lo]. Despite the ebullience of his
“effects”that ultimately make the reader initial reaction, Klee did not mention a
question the “justifiable causes” of mis- series of illustrations until 1909 [ l l ] ,
fortune repeatedly cited by Candide. and it was 2 years later before he pro-
The first adversity to befall Candide is duced any drawings. Since Klee initiated
his expulsion from the paradise of the and completed the Candide illustrations
ChPteau Thunder-ten-tronckh, the con- with no commitment from a publisher,
sequence of his harmless gesture of he must have been motivated by consid-
affection for CunCgonde, whose inno- erations other than the hope for com-
cence had already been compromised by mercial success. A passage in the Diaries
witnessing Pangloss’s physics lesson (Fig. confirms that Nee turned to Voltaire
1). Eleven chapters and as many adven- following a series of setbacks in his quest
tures later, the reunited lovers are for public recognition, presumably in an
shocked to learn that their own suffer- attempt to counter an incipient state of
ings pale next to the tortures inflicted by depression. Using the paternal form of
ravenous Turkish soldiers on one of address to acknowledge a kindred spirit,
their companions in misery (Fig. 2 ) . Klee confessed that “Father Voltaire”
Klee’s caricatured figures are the visual had helped him recover his “true self‘
counterparts of Voltaire’sliterary charac- [ 121. He was undoubtedly referring to
ters, which exist not as the complex pro- the satirical bite of his earlier line draw-
tagonists of a realistic drama, but as ings and etchings, which he considered
puppets set in motion by the author’s his most accomplished and original
ironic intentions. To approximate the work. Klee realized that the challenge of
controlled movements of Voltaire’s char- illustrating Cundide would provide an
acters, Klee alternated between two fig- ideal opportunity to refine the graphic
ure types: one type with the hinged skills that had previously and successful-

Fig. 1. Paul Nee, photoengraved illustration to Voltaire’s Cundide,
Chapter I, in which Candide is exiled from the Chiiteau Thunder-
ten-tronckhand thrust out into “the best of all possible worlds.”
Illustration (10 x 14 cm)reproduced from an original example of
the limited edition of Voltaire, Kandide: Wer, Die beste Welt
(Munich Kurt Wolff, 1920) in the Special Collections Division,
Jackson Library, The University of North Carolina at Greensboro,
photograph courtesy of Tim Barkley. The original pen and ink
drawing of 1911 is in the Paul KleeStiftung,Kunstmuseum, Bern;
Copyright 0 1992 ARS, New York/Bild-Kunst, Bonn.
Fig. 2. Paul Klee, photoengraved illustration to Voltaire’s Cundide,
Chapter XU, in which the daughter of Pope Urban X challenges
Candide’s optimism by recounting tortures endured in a Turkish
harem. Illustration (7.5 x 14 cm)reproduced from an original exam-
ple of the limited edition of kbndide: Oder, Die bate Welt (Munich,
Kurt Wolff, 1920) in the Special Collections Division, Jackson
Library, The University of North Carolina at Greensboro,
photograph courteq of Tim Barkley. The original pen and ink draw-
ing of 1912 is in the Paul Klee-Stiftung, Kunstmuseum, Bern;
Copyright 0 1992 ARS, New York/Bild-Kunst, Bonn.

9 10 A z d & Klee and the Energetics-Atomistics Controversy

ly served as the vehicle of his innate pen-
chant for satire. He seems to have
delayed beginning the project until
some catalyst triggered the genesis of a
new graphic style that would capture the
incisiveness and verve of Voltaire’s liter-
ary style. Klee’s studio experiments with
the phenomenon of energy proved to be
the catalyst.
As early as 1905, Klee declared himself
relatively satisfied with his etchings and
determined to channel his skills with the
etching needle in a new direction. After
etching into a blackened pane of glass, he
remarked on the contrast between the
illuminating energy of white lines and the
“black energies” of graphite lines on a
white ground [13]. Beginning in 1908, he
experimented with various graphic equiv-
alents of energy, ranging from tightly
concentrated scrawls to more broadly
defined, parallel linear rhythms.
By 1910 Klee began to explore light as
a form of energy. Inspired by light regis
tered as white lines on photographic
negatives, he attempted to render light
as “unfolding energy” on a dark surface
[ 141. He then considered the pictorial
effects of dark notations for lightenergy,
noting that a few dark energy lines could
define both the negative areas of a
snowy landscape and the highlights in a
dark landscape [ 151.
Shortly before undertaking the Can-
dide project, Klee found that he needed
another kind of line to contain the lin-
ear patterns that had evolved into tremu-
lous impressions of energy. After several
trials at controlling his nervous energy
lines, in the spring of 1911 he reported
further progress: ‘The possibility ripen-
ed in me of harmonizing my swarming
scribbles with firmly restraining linear
boundaries,” adding that “the spaces still
look a bit empty, but not for much
longer!” [161.
The possibility of combining his linear
scrawls with firmly drawn contours is fully
realized in the Candide illustrations. Here
the restraining contour lines minimally
define the figures and occasional stage
props. To the extent that concentrations
of the scribbled lines indicate the ground
planes, skylines and lateral frames of gen-
eralized settings, the energy lines retain a
vestige of the descriptive function they
served in the snowy and dark landscapes
Klee described earlier in the Diaries; but
the principal function of Klee’s “swarm-
ing scribbles” is to animate the figures
and fill the space they occupy. In some
drawings the characteristically scrawled
lines are contained within the contours
delineating the figures (Fig. 1); more
often they appear to swarm around the
figures like a visible atmospheric force
(Fig. 2). Without Klee’s graphic notations
of energy, the figures would appear to be
transparent forms hovering in a white
vacuum. This implicit equivalence of
energy and substance, both corporeal
and atmospheric, suggests that Klee was
attempting to give visual form to
Ostwald’s theory that energy is the only
real substance in nature.
OSTWALD’S DOCTRINE OF
ENERGETICSAND KLEE’s
RESPONSE TO VOLTAIRE
At the turn of the century, Ostwald was
known as one of Germany’s most influ-
ential and eccentric scientists.While Klee
was a student in the 1890s, he may well
have acquired a basic knowledge of
chemistry from Ostwald‘s Lehrbuch der uU-
gmeinen Chimie, which was then in gener-
al use as a gymnasium text [ 171. Ostwald’s
textbook was the first of a prodigious
body of publications. A prolific research
scientist, Ostwald was awarded a chair at
the University of Leipzig, where he estab
lished the evolving field of physical
chemistry as a recognized discipline. He
was also a humanist thinker in the
Renaissance tradition, cultivating inter-
ests in both music and painting.
Following the example of Carus, Ostwald
published his thoughts on painting in
epistolary form under the title Mahhkfe.
In a 1904 letter to his fiande, Klee de-
scribed these letters as the observations
of an experienced practitioner and def-
erentially identified the author as the
“famous chemist and physicist” [18].
Klee noted in his Diaries, however, that
Ostwald’s Letters had little appeal for him
[ 191. It is not difficult to guess why.
Ostwald’s conviction that ”a good artist
must have at least as thorough scientific
training as a physician” may well have
reinforced or even initiated Klee’s con-
cern about the danger of scientists med-
dling in the affairs of artists [20]. On the
other hand, Klee would certainly have
concurred with Ostwald’s insistence that
artists adhere to an “empirical-experi-
mental method ‘‘ [21], a version of which
Klee himself prescribed. Reflecting in
the Diaries on his aversion to theorizing,
Klee had rejected hypothetical premises
in favor of “healthy ideas arising from
concrete cases,”and later, as a teacher at
the Bauhaus, he would construct peda-
gogical exercises based on the direct
observation of nature and on Ostwald’s
experimentally derived system of tonal
values [22].
Aichele: Klee and the Energetics-Atomistics Controversy
Klee also seems to have been interest-
ed in Ostwald’s theories of energy. Klee
tentatively appropriated the term “ener-
gy” from the terminology of the physical
sciences in 1905, and he began using the
term consistently after 1909, the year
Ostwald was awarded a much publicized
Nobel Prize in chemistry. The Nobel
committee recognized Ostwald for his
contributions to the study of catalysis,
but he was better known beyond the sci-
entific community as the controversial
proponent of energetics, a set of theo-
ries that fueled the energetics-atomistics
controversy in the mid-1890s.
In the tradition of positivism, which
insisted on an experimental approach to
scientific knowledge, Ostwald dismissed
the hypothetical basis of atomic theory as
fundamentally unsound. He refused to
accept the reality of atoms and molecules
because their physical existence had not
been verified in a laboratory. His own
experiments in physical chemistry led
him to the conclusion that matter was
simply a manifestation of energy rather
than the weight and mass traditionally
designated as matter. In Die Energie, a
comprehensive and popularized version
of his theories, Ostwald confidently but
prematurely claimed that energetics
would be “the science of the future”
[231. Ironically, Die E n q i e appeared in
1908, the same year French scientists
provided the experimental proof of
atoms that Ostwald had demanded.
Although he then recanted his staunch
opposition to atomism, Ostwald contin-
ued to defend the aspects of energetics
he had previously incorporated into a
new system of nature philosophy.
In his Naturphilosophie, Ostwald ques-
tioned the theory of “preestablished har-
mony” on which the German scientist and
philosopher Gottfried Wilhelm von
Leibniz had based his philosophy of opti-
mism [241. Ostwald subsequently used Die
En* as a vehicle for proposing that a
verifiable form of energy, which he called
“nervous”or “psychic” energy, offered a
scientifically based alternative to Leibniz’s
unverifiable theory [25]. Ostwald’s con-
cept of nervous energy is the key to the
link between his theory of energetics and
Klee’s illustrations of Voltaire’s Candide,
which satirizes Leibniz’s doctrine of opti-
mism. Voltaire’s text is peppered with
caustic allusions to Leibniz’s conviction
that the world is a divine creation in
which every occurrence is motivated by
“sufficient reason,” according to a
“preestablishedharmony” [26].
In seeking a visual parallel to Vol-
taire’s verbal contempt of Leibniz’s phi-
31 1

Fig. 3. Paul Klee, The Eqbectnnt Ones, pen and ink on paper, 68 x 149 an (1912).An example
of the artist’s “protocubist”drawings. Photograph courtesy of Paul KleeStiftung,Kunst-
museum, Bern; Copyright 0 1992 ARS, New York/Bild-Kumt, Bonn.
losophy, Klee could not have identified
a more unwittingly sympathetic ally than
Ostwald, who found Leibniz’s theory of
“preestablished harmony” as absurd as
Voltaire did. According to Ostwald,
every cause and its corresponding effect
constitute a temporal sequence generat-
ed not by “sufficient reason,” but by ner-
vous energy that is unleashed in
response to external stimuli and in turn
is transformed into other forms of ener-
gy. In the process of developing his stu-
dio experiments with energy into visual
metaphors of what Ostwald would have
characterized as nervous energy, Klee
conceived a new approach to book illus
tration. Instead of giving literal pictorial
form to Voltaire’s descriptive imagery, as
previous illustrators of Candide had done
[27], Klee created a series of illustrations
that exemplified his often quoted a p h e
3 12 Airhele: Klre arid the Energetics-Atomistics Controversy
lems, Klee again began experimenting.
Unfortunately, the Diaries leave n o
record of any particular problem that
preoccupied him after completing the
Candide project. Typical examples of the
catalogued drawings from the last half of
1912 are The Expectunt O m (Fig. 3) and
An Uncanny Moment (Fig. 4). The first of
these depicts five figures, the central
one in a crouched position with raised
arms suggesting a posture of anticipa-
tion or supplication. The second shows a
man and a child witnessing that split-sec-
ond before a confrontational stand-off
between a dog and two cats erupts into a
fight. In both images Klee resorted to
emphatic gestures, directional lines of
thrust, and other conventional devices
he had used to sustain movement within
rism: “Art does not reproduce the visi- the Candide series. Despite the similari-
ble; rather it makes visible” [28]. In the ties, the later drawings are different
narrative context of Candide, Klee’s from the Candide illustrations in that
“swarming scribbles” make visible both they feature a new figure type and a new
the invisible phenomenon of nervous sense of movement.
energy that animates Voltaire’s charac- To explain the transformation of the
ters and the verbal energy that gives rubbery, attenuated figures in the Can-
meaning to Voltaire’s “conte philoso- dide illustrations into the geometric,
phique.” angular figures in The Expectant Ones and
An Uncanny Moment Klee scholars have
cited the influence of Cubism, invariably
m E ’ S VISUAL AND VERBAL appending the caveat that the figures are
RESPONSES TO CUBISM cubistic in appearance rather than in
Klee’s friends, including the painter structural form [30]. The drawings are
Franz Marc, responded to his “Can- puzzling because Klee’s skeletal figures
diddles” [29] with unanimous enthusi- bear little resemblance to the faceted,
asm. Despite their favorable reactions, volumetric figures of analytic Cubism;
Klee was not tempted to restrict his cre- moreover, the static forms of Cubism do
ative efforts to a graphic style he had not account for a sense of movement
already mastered. Determined, as always, that seems to emanate from the internal
to seek new solutions to pictorial p r o b structure of Klee’s figures. Klee was curi-
ous about Cubism but deliberately cau-
tious about adapting its stylistic
vocabulary to his own vision. His process
of assimilating and individualizing any
Fig. 4. Paul Klee, An external influence entailed a lengthy and
Lhrmnny Moment, pen carefully planned program of analysis
and ink on paper, and experimentation. His investigation
17.2 x 18 an (1912). of Cubism was no exception.
Another “proto- Klee was exposed to Cubism at the
Cubist” drawing that
Blue Rider exhibitions in 1911 and
bears a resemblance
to Perrin’s diagram 1912. With tongue firmly in cheek, he
of Brownian trajecte chummily referred to Picasso, Derain
ria.Photograph and Braque as “Schwabing cronies” and
courtesy of the Paul determined to go to Paris to see more of
KleeStiftung, Kunst- their work [31]. Following a whirlwind
museum, Bern;
trip that combined a tourist’s itinerary
Copyright 0 1992
ARS,New York/Biid- with visits to Delaunay’s studio and to
Kunst, Bonn. galleries specializing in con temporary
art, he returned to Munich just as The
Blue R i h Almanac was published. In this
volume, as in much of the early critical
literature on Cubism, there are refer-
ences to an unspecified “mathematical”
or “scientific” foundation of the new
style. Roger Allard, for example,
observed that the Cubists achieved order
by bringing out the “latent rhythms”
inherent in a “mathematical chaos” of
formal abstractions [32]. Guillaume
Apollinaire would later use the term “sci-
entific” to characterize the tendency of
some Cubist painters to apply elemental
principles of geometry in a conscious
effort to render objects in their purest,
most essential forms [33].
In Klee’s own initial response to
Cubism, which took the form of a review
of the July 1912 “Moderner Bund exhi-
bition in Zurich, he expressed concern
that the Cubists imposed pictorial order
and geometric purity at the expense of
the viability of certain kinds of organic
forms. According to Klee, the most char-
acteristic feature of Cubism was the
independent pictorial reality of a com-
positional scaffolding to which all repre-
sentational objects were subjected. He
did not find the resulting distortions of
form disturbing in a landscape, but he
had concerns about the effect of impos-
ing a rigid, reductive surface grid on
humans and animals “341. Klee’s verbal
response to Cubism had its visual coun-
terpart in The Expectant Ones and An
Uncanny Moment. In both of these draw-
ings he addressed what he perceived as
the problem of reconciling a pictorial
structure derived from Cubism with
forms that retain a sense of vitality. His
tentative solutions fuse the semblance of
a Cubist compositional grid with human
and animal forms that embody kinetic
energy. Klee once again seems to have
turned to science in his search for a
graphic equivalent of energy. On this
occasion he discovered a visual proto-
type for his figure types and composi-
tions in contemporary scientific
experiments that were as revolutionary
as the Cubists’ innovations in art.
A VISUAL MODEL, FROM
PERRI”S PROOF OF THE
ATOMIC THEORY
In 1895 Ostwald fanned the energetics
atomistics controversy with the publica-
tion of “La DCroute de l’atomisme
contemporain,” a vehement denuncia-
tion of his opponents’ hypothetical mod-
els of physical phenomena. Rising to
Ostwald’s challenge, a new generation of
French scientists embarked on a pro-
gram of laboratory experiments that
shifted the focus of research in the physi-
cal sciences from Germany to France
and laid the foundation for modern
physics. In 1909 the French mathemati-
Fq.5. IUu-draike dia-
gnunOriginalh/Pub-
lished inJeanPerrin,
“La M t k des mo&
~ ” R e u u e ~
plce(16December
1911). The diagram
wtrrinchuledassvisual
proof of the hypothe-
SiSthatBravaian
movement is irregular
in ita tradationaldis-
placements.Photo-
graphcourtesyof
TmBarkley,from
JeauPerriu, Les
Atontes(PdSGalli-
mard, 1970) Copy-
right 6 P.U.F. 1948.
cian and physicist Jean Perrin an- widely acclaimed by 1926, when he was
nounced the startling results of his awarded a Nobel Prize in physics.
recently completed research in a lengthy Klee was almost certainly familiar with
article entitled “Mouvementbrownien et the link between Brownian motion and
rCalit6 molCculaire.” The following year molecular reality by the mid-1920s. In
Perrin’s publication was translated into the second volume of his Bauhaus note-
both English and German. Although books, he introduced the concept of “an
some German physicists were reluctant to atomic-structural rhythm,” which Sara
accept Perrin’s findings, even Ostwald Lynn Henry has linked to the phe-
conceded that Perrin’s research consti- nomenon of Brownian motion [38].
tuted conclusive experimental proof of Exactly when Klee intuited the potential
molecular reality and atomic theory [35]. application of Perrin’s experiments with
Nineteenth- and early twentiethcentu- Brownian motion to his own artistic
ry hypotheses about atoms were derived experiments is a question that can only
from theories originally formulated by be answered with conjecture. There is
the fifthcentury B.C. Greek philosophers certainly no reason to assume that Klee
Democritus and Leucippus, then codi- would have sought out the specialized
fied by the Latin poet Lucretius. In his professional journals in which Perrin
didactic De Rerum Natura, Lucretius char- presented his research to other scien-
acterized atoms as “first-bodies” that tists. However, Perrin also wrote lively,
move through a deep void, “plied with popularized versions of his research
unceasing, diverse motion” [36]. papers, and publications such as La
The frenzied, random movement Nature summarized his lectures for lay
hypothesized by the early atomists was audiences. In March 1911, at the time
subsequently named for the Scottish Klee was writing in his Diaries about the
botanist Robert Brown, who is credited sciences bringing a “diversion,”Perrin
with first observing the movement of was explaining his experiments with
microscopic particles suspended in fluid. Brownian motion to the Socitt6 des
The phenomenon of Brownian motion Amis de 1’UniversitC de Paris. The lec-
was the subject of numerous scientific ture was subsequently published in the
studies and much theoretical specula- 16 December 1911, issue of the Remu sci-
tion throughout the nineteenth century entijique. Following a brief history of
and into the twentieth. In a series of atomism, Perrin reviewed his various
papers published between 1905 and experimental proofs of molecular reali-
1908, Albert Einstein fully developed a ty. The article was illustrated with several
theoretical model of Brownian motion diagrams, including a set of line draw-
[37], but it was not until Perrin pub- ings that connected the points marking
lished the results of his experiments that the consecutive positions of three gran-
Brownian motion was definitively linked ules of resinous mastic at 30-second
to the validation of atomic theory. The intervals (Fig. 5). The drawings repre-
importance of Perrin’s research was sent a schematic magnification of the
immediately acknowledged in the rar- microscopic movements recorded by
efied circles of physical science and was Perrin’s research associates with the cam-
Aichele: Klee and the Energetics-AtomisticsControversy 31 3
 era lucidu, an optical device used to pro-
ject images onto a surface for tracing.
These traced images provided visual
proof of the hypothesis that Brownian
movement is completely irregular in its
translational, or horizontal, displace-
ments. Clinching visual evidence with
mathematical calculations, Perrin added
that the mean squares of the diagram-
med linear segments verified Einstein’s
theory of translational Brownian mo-
tion, thus giving validity to Einstein’s
methodology, which the advocates of
energetics had questioned [39].
Perrin’s widely accessible research
confirmed the reality of imperceptible
movements that animate even forms in a
state of potential rather than actual
motion. This was the kind of movement
Klee had found lacking in the Cubists’
depiction of humans and animals. In
Perrin’s diagram of translational Brown-
ian movement, Klee would have seen a
visual model of kinetic energy that
resembled a Cubist compositional grid.
There is a striking similarity between
Perrin’s schematized renderings of
Brownian trajectories and the reductive
structural skeletons of the figures in
Klee’s The Expectant Ones a n d A n
Uncanny M o m a t . Perrin’s diagram, con-
sisting of points connected by lines,
accounts for the relationship of one lin-
ear configuration to another within
Klee’s compositional groupings, as well
as for the geometric angularity and con-
tinuous linear structures of the individu-
al figures. As in the Candide drawings,
Klee’s distinctive nervous lines twist
around the contours of the figures and
occasionally spill over into spatial cavi-
ties, but they assume new meaning in
these later drawings. Interpreted in the
context of experiments with molecular
motion, the scribbled spirals correspond
to the rotational spinning that occurs
simultaneously with the translational
Brownian movement illustrated in
Perrin’s diagram. Klee’s figures, with
their angular skeletal structures rein-
forced by coiled energy lines, pose an
original solution to the problem of
retaining a sense of movement or vitality
in forms submitted to the geometric
rigidity of a Cubist composition.
CONCLUSION
If the conjectures set forth in this essay
are valid, the energetics-atomistics con-
troversy was a catalyst in the evolution of
Klee’s drawing style between 1911 and
1912. Given Klee’s proclivity for experi-
3 14 Aichph Wee and the Energetics-Atomistics Controversy
mentally based analogies between art
and science, it is reasonable to assume
that his references to the graphic nota-
tions of energy and later to atomic-struc-
tural rhythms were grounded in a n
understanding of the fundamental scien-
tific issues involved in determining the
physical states of energy and matter.
These issues gained currency in wide
intellectual circles because they had
philosophical as well as scientific impli-
cations.
Ostwald proposed his philosophic
energeticism not only to salvage some of
his theories about energy, but also to
reinterpret what h e considered the.
empirically unsound, metaphysically
tainted nature philosophy predicated on
ideas espoused by Leibniz in the seven-
teenth century a n d elaborated by
Goethe and Schelling in the late eigh-
teenth and early nineteenth centuries,
The German tradition of nature philosw
phy informs many of Klee’s theories
about art, yet he shared Ostwald’s aver-
sion to theory based on pure specula-
tion. Klee would therefore have been
attracted to Ostwald’s theory of energet-
ics because it seemed to offer experi-
mentally g r o u n d e d proof of t h e
fundamental principle of a Germanic
nature philosophy-that a common cre-
ative energy is inherent in all forms of
art and nature. In giving visual form to
this intangible concept of energy, Klee
developed a graphic language that effec-
tively communicates the meaning of
Voltaire’s Candide.
Although methodologically and philo-
sophically attuned to the doctrine of
energetics, Klee was also intensely curi-
ous about new ideas in science and art.
The vague references to science in early
critical appraisals of Cubism no doubt
piqued Klee’s skepticism as well as his
curiosity, for he was as skeptical about
facile analogies as h e was a b o u t
unfounded speculations. In Perrin’s
experimental proof of atomistic theory,
Klee would have discovered a visual
model for establishing the kind of paral-
lels between Cubism and contemporary
science that previously he had made
between his nervous lines and Ostwald’s
theory of energetics. During the second
decade of the twentieth century, Wee
engaged in a sustained effort to recon-
cile his German cultural heritage with
French innovations in art. Analyzed in
the context of the energetics-atomistics
controversy, Klee’s Candide illustrations
and 1912 drawings constitute an initial
step in this ongoing process.
Acknowledgments
T o the following scholars who offered constructive
criticism and confirmation of the ideas developed in
this essay, 1 in turn offer grateful thanks: David
Carrier, Carl Goldstein, Linda Dalrymple
Henderson and Sara Lynn Henry.
References and Notes
1. P. Klee, The Diaries of Paul Kke, 1898-1918, F.
Klee, ed. (Berkeley: Univ. of California Press, 1964)
#897.All references to this work cite Klee’s diary
enuy numbers.
2. P. Klee, “Creative Credo,” in The Inward Vision:
Watercolors, Drawings and Writings Paul Kke, N.
Guterman, trans. (New York Harry Abrams, 1959)
V. MI references to this work cite Klee’s numbered
sections.
3. P. Klee, Thr Thinking Eye, J. Spiller, e d . ; R.
Manheim, trans. (New York: George Wittenborn,
1961)p. 94.
4. C.G. Carus, Neun Briefe uber Landsdaflsmalerei
geschrieba in den Jahren I815 bis 1824. Zuvw ein Brief
van Goethe als Einhitung (Dresden: Wolfgang Jess, c.
1955)pp. 17-177.
5. Three Klee scholars have written extensively o n
Klee’s use of scientific concepts and methods. See,
in order of publication, E. Winkler, “Paul Klee und
die exakte Wissenschaft,” in P.H. Diehl, ed., Crenzen
der Mahei (Vienna and Cologne: E. Wancura, 1961)
pp. 195-244; S.L. Henry, Paul Klee, Nature and
M o h Science, the 192Us, Ph.D. diss. (Berkeley: Univ.
of California, 1976) and “Form-Creating Energies:
Paul Klee and Physics,” Arts Magazine 52,No. 1,
118-121 (September 1977);R.Verdi, MepandNature
(New York Rizzoli, 1985);S.L. Henry, “Paul Klee’s
Pictorial Mechanics, from Physics to the Picture
Plane,” Pantheon47,147-165(1989).
6. For a study of the application of scientifically
based theory to labor in particular, see A.
Rabinbach, The H u w n Motm: Enera, Fatigue, and the
&gins o f M o d m i ~(New York: Basic Books, 1990).
7. Klee [ 11 #747.
8.Nee [3] p. 93.
9. See Candidr ou I’Optimismr, in Voltaire, Oeuvres
rompfiles de Voltairr 21 (Paris: Carnier FrPres, 1879)
p. 138 for first reference.
10. P. Klee, Briefr an die Familir, 1893-1940, I
(1893-1906),F. Klee, ed. (Cologne: DuMont, 1979),
letters to Lily Stumpf, 13Jariuary 1906,p. 571,and
3lJaIiua1y 1906,p. 582.
11. In 1908 Klee mused on the possibility that he
might “illustrate a heautiful hook some day” ( [ I ]
#813), but it was the following year before he made
specific mention of illustrating Candidr ( [ 1 J , #865).
12. Klee [ I ] #897.
13.Klee [ I ] #632,#633.
14.Klee [I] #885.
15.Klee [ I ] #892,#893.
16.Klee [ I ] #899.
17. Henly has identified one of Klee’s school books
as H. Wettstein, Lritfadenfiir den Unterricht in der
Naturkunde an Sekundarschulrm (1893),noting that it
was a manual rather than a comprehensive text-
book. Given Klee’s sound theoretical knowledge of
the physical sciences, she proposes that his teacher
may have suggested other sources (Pantheon 47,pp.
147, 163).The speculatioii that Klee was familiar
with Ostwald’s text is supported by the letter cited
below in Ref. [ 181.
18. Klee [lo], letter to Lily Stumpf, 28June 1904,p.
430.
19. Klee, [l] #561.
20. W. Ostwald, Malerbnefe, BAtrigz zur Them‘e und
Praxis der Malerei (Leipzig: S . Hirzel, 1904) pp.
158-159. Klee’s skepticism about the relationship
between art and medical science is detected in his
derisive reference to anatomy lessons ([l], #453),
which may well have been intended as a criticism of
Ostwald.
21. Ostwald [201 p. iv.
22. Klee [l] W65. Many of Klee’s “concrete cases”
are collected in his two Bauhaus notebooks, The
ThinkingEye and The Nature of Nature; among these
are pedagogical exercises based on Ostwald’s con-
tinuum of achromatic colors. Henry cited corre-
spondence from Ise Gropius confirming that
Ostwald lectured on his color theory at the Bauhaus
in 1927 and an interview with a Bauhaus student
who recalled that Ostwald’s terminology was too sci-
entific to be understood by the students (Pantheon
47, pp. 149,163).
23. W. Ostwald, Dre Energie (Leipzig: J.A. Barth,
1908) p. 167.
24. W. Ostwald, Nature Philosophy, T. Seltzer, trans.
(New York: Holt, 1910) p. 143. Ostwald’s
Naturphilosophie was first published as Vol. 1 of
BiicherderNatun~iismch~ (Leipzig, c. 1900).
25. Ostwald 1231 pp. 140-156.
26. “Raison suffisante” is a recurring phrase in
Candide; see O e u m m p h 21, p. 139 for the first
reference. Voltaire also referred drectly to Leibniz’s
theory of “preestablished harmony”; see p. 213.
27. Examples of earlier illustrations of Candide are
included in J. Glaesemer, Handzeichnungen, I,
Kindhn’t bis 1920 (Bern: Kunstmuseum, 1973) p.
179.
28. Klee [2] I.
29. Klee coined this di&nutive in 111 #914.
30. The most recent of several excellent studies of
these “protoCubist”drawings is in M. Franciscono,
Paul He?, His Work and Thought (Chicago: Univ. of
Chicago Press, 1991) pp. 140-144.
31. Klee [l] W07.
32. R. Allard,“The Signs of Renewal in Painting,”in
E. Fry, ed., Cubism, (New York McGraw-Hill, 1966)
p. 71. The article was originally published in D m
Blaue Reiter (Munich, 1912) as “Die Kennzeichen
der Erneuerung in der Malerei.”
33. G. Apollinaire, h Peintres Cuhstes: Miditations
EstWques (Paris: Eughe Figuikre, 1913) pp. 24-25.
34. Excerpts from Klee’s review, published in Die
Alpen 6 (August 1912), are translated and analyzed
in J . Jordan, P a d Klee and Cubism (Princeton:
Aichele: Klee and the Energetics-AtomisticsControversy
Princeton Univ. Press, 1984) pp. 59-60. Klee’s obser-
vations, which anticipate Apollinaire’s characteriza-
tion of “Scientific Cubism,” are remarkably
perceptive, but it should be noted that his general
reference to a Cubist scaffolding is not applicable to
all Cubist paintings.
35. For a succinct history of the energeticsatomistics
controversy, see M.J. Nye, Molecular Realrty, A
Pmp&’ve on the h e n h j k Work ofJean P m n (London:
Macdonald, 1971) pp. 1-50.
36. Lucretius, On the Nature of Things, C. Bailey,
trans. (Oxford Clarendon Press, 1921) pp. 43,68.
37. A bibliography of Einstein’s articles is listed in
Nye [35] p. 184. These articles, all published while
Einstein was living in Bern, Klee’s native city, are col-
lected and translated in R Furth, ed. Investgaiions on
the Theoly of the Brownian Movement, A.D. Cowper,
trans. (New York Dover, 1956).
38. For Klee’s reference, see The Nature of Nature, J.
Spiller, ed.; H. Norden, trans. (New York:
Wittenborn, 1970) p. 97. See also Henry, Pantheon
[5] pp. 148,163.
39. See J. Perrin, “La Realid des molecules,“ Revue
scientifigue49, 774-784, (16 December 1911). For a
briefer summary of Perrin’s research, see H.
Vigneron, “Les Preuves de la r6alit6 moleculaire,”
La Nature40 (2 December 1911) pp. 3-4.
315