Paul Klee - Comedian, 1904

But no other subject is so intensely dealt with in the »Inventionen« as the comedian, which comes up in three different versions. All of them show the head of a man in profile, hidden behind a mask. While the faces of the two first versions are recognisable as self-portraits, the third image focuses on a more fundamental reflection by Klee on his existence as an artist. Here, the discrepancy in the earlier pictures between what the artist is and what he does gives way to a duality of artistic form and artistic personality.