In 1931, Paul Klee sketched “Drinking Companion” (Stammtischler), as if to capture the obnoxious, poorly informed loud mouth you wouldn’t want in charge of anything.

Klee was one of the first German artists the Nazis labeled “degenerate,” which Nazis said meant Jewish, so they accused him of being Jewish. He was not Jewish.

The Nazis had been losing popularity in 1932 but then they abruptly seized power, with Hitler appointed in January 1933 to Chancellor. Klee was dismissed from the Düsseldorf academy, his home was searched by the Gestapo, and he moved with his family to Bern, Switzerland. In 1937 the Nazis still attacked him, trying to shame him in a “Degenerate Art exhibition” that compared his work to mental illness.