Fright of a Girl

Paul Klee worked often with watercolour and his painting Fright of a Girl is just one example of his immense proficiency with this medium.

He works with the qualities of the pigment in new ways, showing his versatility with using washes to create different layers of inviting colour.

This 1922 work was not only created using watercolour. Klee makes use of the water properties of ink as well. Deeper tones of grayish blue are found at two points.

These are the top layer and lower section of the piece. In this way, they help to create borders, separating the painting from anything on the outside. These indistinct areas also help to draw attention to the central figure.

Klee is fond of using arrows. Those fans who like seeing them in his paintings will not be disappointed here, since he has included one to the left of the composition.

In fact, it points directly at the girl, emphasising her state of shock. It is impossible to miss his focus on her emotional state. As in Separation At Evening, the arrow is used to great effect and is an essential part of the painting.

The girl has an expression which many children would probably be familiar with. It is more often seen in the schoolyard than on the faces of adults.

Perhaps as people grow older they try hard to block their true feelings from the world. There may also be less that completely frightens them to such an extent.

Klee explores the childlike depth of her emotion with glee. Her face is much larger than usual and is almost a caricature of sorts. Klee was known as a follower of Munch and that connection may easily be seen here. The distortion of the head in relation to the body may remind some viewer's of that in Munch's Scream.

Fright of a Girl has a profile within a direct forward view of the subject's face. The line used to create her nose merges the chin, forehead and nose seen in profile with the forward image. Her eyes are also used to represent both her profile and what a viewer would see facing her directly in front. This brings further attention to the state of confusion she must be in when she is frightened.