In Paris he started to draft his polemical text for "Painting and Drawing", which was eventually published in 1891, and subsequently reissued a number of times. The manuscript was well circulated and well read, with an number of later artist and historians referencing it, including Giorgio de Chirico who called Klinger the "modern artist par excellence". In it Klinger asserted the idea that prints and the graphic arts should have a new and significant role in the arts, distinct from painting, and were best suited for stylistic and conceptual experimentation. Also that the differences between naturalism (realism) and neo-idealism, as well as form and content, were reconcilable, and both were possible. Concepts of the Gesamtkunstwerk, an all-embracing art form, with unity among the arts (e.g. painting, sculpture, literature, poetry, music, etc.), were also discussed.