Senecio (Old Man)

The title "Senecio" refers to the botanical name "Senecio vulgaris," the common groundsel, also known as "common ragwort." In his catalogue raisonné, Paul Klee titled the painting "Baldgreis" (Bald Old Man), which may possibly be understood as a play on the literal meaning of "ragwort." Jim M. Jordan points out—alongside other possible motif influences from Pablo Picasso's "Portrait de Wilhelm Uhde," Marc Chagall's "Le soldat boit," and Oskar S.