Senecio
The artist
Paul Klee, a Swiss-German artist known for playful, colorful pictures that feel a bit like music.
What you see
A round, friendly face built from squares and rectangles of warm orange, pink, and red, with two small eyes looking straight at you.
The story
Klee painted this glowing head in 1922 while he was teaching at the famous Bauhaus art school in Germany.
The style
He split the face into little colored blocks, almost like a mosaic, so the whole head seems to shimmer and glow like a sun.
Look closer
The two eyebrows sit at different heights, which makes the face look curious or slightly surprised, as if it is thinking.
Where to see it
The painting lives at the Kunstmuseum in Basel, Switzerland. Its name is a plant sometimes called ragwort.
Fun fact
Even though the face is made of simple shapes, most people can instantly tell it is smiling in a gentle, happy way.