For his 50th birthday a long-cherished wish came true for Paul Klee. He traveled to Egypt from December 17, 1928, to January 17, 1929. The Klee Society, founded by the collector Otto Ralfs, paid the travel expenses. Paul Klee recorded his impressions on postcards and in letters, most of them to his wife Lili Klee in Dessau.

His appointment to the Bauhaus in 1921 not only meant material security for Klee, but also that he came to be regarded as one of the most important artists of his time. The institution was a nucleus of modern art and architecture. But despite all his enthusiasm for the intellectual exchange with the other artists – the strictures of his teaching activities and the multiple related tasks were a heavy burden on Klee. His own art suffered from such time-consuming teaching. He sought to relax and find inspiration for his art during vacations to the south of France, describing his impressions in letters to members of his family and his wife Lily.

Paul Klee’s journey to Tunisia has become mythic. It represents the artist’s breakthrough with colour. It was, in fact, the cubic architecture of Tunisia that encouraged Klee to adopt a new mode of composition. Together with the painters Louis Moilliet and August Macke, he travelled to Tunisia in April 1914, just a few weeks before the outbreak of the First World War. For two weeks, the three artists followed the usual tourist paths – from Tunis, via St. Germain and Hammamet, to Kairouan. Paul Klee recorded his impressions of the journey in his diary.