Senecio

Klee’s human faces, his “portraits”, are not portraits in the classical sense, yet the artist intended them to be more real, more true. Klee humorously christened his painting, also known as Senecio or Head of a Man Going Senile, Baldgreis in his oeuvre catalogue. It shows a face that is almost grey, figuratively ageing, but not yet grey, as it is dominated by yellowish and reddish colours alongside greyish white. Moreover, the figure has no hair, which could be greying, and the English word “bald” could be a humorous reference to this. However, the yellowish-greyish tone of the Senecio painting and the meaning of the title lead us to nature and botany, since the plant Senecio vulgaris is called Greiskraut in German, i.e. grey herb which has bright yellow flowers. Several other members of the Senecio family are also well known, for example, the flowers of Senecio fulgens are coral red and the leaves are greyish brown, very close to the colours of Klee’s Senecio.