Piet Mondrian (1872-1944) pioneered abstract painting in Amsterdam in the early 20th century. Breaking from standards of figurative realism, he began using the modernist building blocks of pure form and colour to depict the world around him. While his early landscapes appear traditional, by 1905 he had started using trees and horizon lines to emphasise background colours and to structure the spaces in his compositions.
Mondrian devoted himself to devising an art of “universal beauty” grounded in what he termed “pure plastic art,” and alongside Theo van Doesburg, he founded the Dutch art movement known as De Stijl or Neoplasticism in 1917. His new paintings treated colour itself as modifiable material, so that looking at them might be a unique experience of considering movement and organisation. By restricting himself to primary colours (red, blue, and yellow), primary values (black, white, and grey), and primary directions (horizontal and vertical), Mondrian created what he believed was a precise method toward beauty. He played with various combinations of these factors in his Compositions, decreasing the number of coloured segments and darkening and widening his dividing lines.
Upon his arrival in New York City in 1940, Mondrian began revisiting his long-held practice of moving coloured rectangles of paper around his studio, and his typical black compositional lines started to incorporate the primary colours. Blue and yellow jostle freely in these paintings that appear like maps, or indeed scores for city life—but this new period of experimentation was cut short by his death in 1944.
Part 1 of a 4-part series on the works of Piet Mondrian:
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| 1893-96 Woman with Spindle oil on canvas 36.5 x 30.2 cm Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA |
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| c1897-98 Drawing for Saint Jacob's Church charcoal on paper 50 x 36 cm Musée D'Orsay, Paris |
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| 1898 Reformed Church at Winterswijkn etching (size not given) MoMA, Mew York |
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| c1898-1900 Seated Woman with Arms Crossed opaque and transparent watercolour with scratching on paper 59.1 x 44.8 cm Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA |
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| 1899 View near the Weesperzijde, Tower of Blooker Chocolate Factory in the Distance pastel on paper 45.7 x 65.4 cm Norton Simon Museum, Pasadena, CA |
c1899 Amsterdam Skyline Viewed from the West
It is difficult to know precisely when Mondrian made this lyrical landscape. Even after he began to create his better-known abstract work, he still made more salable scenes in order to support himself. Since it bears stylistic similarities to his late-19th-century work, the watercolor probably predates 1900. The Amsterdam skyline appears from the west, as it does often in his pictures from that time. Although the scene is filled with lifelike details, Mondrian seemed to have delighted in the rhythmic placement of the trees. As they reach to the upper edge of the sheet, their reflections extend across the water, punctuated intermittently by coppiced stumps
Art Institute of Chicago, IL
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| c1899 Amsterdam Skyline Viewed from the West watercolour, gouache, and fabricated black chalk, with erasures, on cream wove paper 39.9 x 58.8 cm The Art Institute of Chicago, IL |
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| c1900 Irrigation Ditch with Mature Willow oil on paper on fibreboard 24.9 x 28.9 cm Tate Gallery, London |
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| c1900 Departure for fishing (Zuiderzee) pastel, watercolour and charcoal 62 x 100 cm Musée D'Orsay, Paris |
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| c1902-03 or earlier Truncated View of the Broekzijder Mill on the Gein, Wings Facing West oil on canvas mounted on cardboard 30.2 x 38.1 cm MoMA, New York |
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| c1902-03 Landzicht Farm Viewed from Downstream oil on canvas 29.8 x 36.2 cm Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA |
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| c1902 Roadway and Farm Building near Arnhem oil on paper on wood panel 35.3 x 26.3 cm Tate Gallery, London |
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| 1902-05 Young Tree Grove Amidst Water Reflections watercolour on paper 30.3 x 39.7 cm Dallas Museum of Art, Texas |
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| c1903 Eastside Mill along the River Gein by Moonlight oil on canvas 63 x 75.4 cm Rijlsmueum, Amsterdam |
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| 1903 Old Farmhouse oil on canvas mounted on cardboard 28 x 42 cm |
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| 1904 Post Mill at Heeswijk, Side View oil on canvas 61 x 40.6 cm Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA |
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| 1905 Landscape at Loosduinen black chalk, watercolour & gouache on cream wove paper 25.8 x 35.9 cm The Cleveland Museum of Art, Ohio |
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| c1905-06 Geinrust Farm: Close Frontal View pastel and charcoal on buff wove paper 47.5 x 60 cm Dallas Museum of Art, Texas |
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| c1905-14 Farm Near Duivendrecht charcoal on paper 58.7 x 76.5 cm Dallas Museum of Art, Texas |
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| 1905-25 Chrysanthemum Study transparent and opaque watercolour over charcoal 27.9 x 21 cm Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA |
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| 1905-25 Marigold in a Bottle transparent and opaque watercolour over graphite 35.6 x 20.3 cm Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA |
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| c1905 Willow Grove: Impression of Light and Shadow oil on canvas 37.4 x 48.2 cm Dallas Museum of Art, TX |
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| c1905 Landzicht Farm: Compositional Study fabricated charcoal on blue laid paper 46.8 x 62.3 cm Dallas Museum of Art, TX |
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| c1905 Gabled Farmhouse Façade oil on canvas 35.9 x 47.6 cm Private Collection |
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| c1905 Farm Building with White Side Façade oil on canvas 31.1 x 39.4 cm Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA |
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| 1906 Chrysanthemum (recto) charcoal on paper 36.2 x 24.5 cm MoMA, New York |
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| 1906 Head in profile (verso) charcoal on paper 36.2 x 24.5 cm MoMA, New York |
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| c1906-07 Isolated tree on the Gein. Composition study charcoal and print on paper 56.2 x 83.5 cm Musée D'Orsay, Paris |
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| c1906-07 Gladiolus black chalk and ink on paper 31 x 21 cm Kröller-Müller Museum Otterlo, Netherlands |
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| 1906-07 Polder landscape with a train on the horizon oil on canvas 79 x 72 cm Musée D'Orsay, Paris |
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| 1906-07 Meanders: polder landscape with river watercolour on paper 50 x 65 cm Musée D'Orsay, Paris |
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| 1906-07 Landscape with Pink Cloud oil on canvas 29.9 x 44.5 cm Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA |
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| 1906-07 A lily branch black chalk and ink on paper 31 x 21 cm Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo, Netherlands |
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| c1907 Farm on a river charcoal & black ink 79.3 x 199.8 cm Kemper Art Museum, Washington University in St. Louis, MO |
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| 1907-08 Chrysanthemum Study wash on paper 40.6 x 26.4 cm Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA |
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| 1907 Two Marigolds transparent and opaque watercolour over graphite 17.1 x 13.3 cm Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA |
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| 1907 Amstel River watercolour and charcoal on paper 69 x 110.1 cm MoMA, New York |
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