Piet Mondrian

Piet Mondrian is famous for his paintings of irregular black grids on white backgrounds interspersed with rectangles in bright primary colors. Less familiar are the landscapes from earlier in his career. Mondrian began Farm Setting with a pencil, searching for pleasing rhythms and contours in the slender trees and the slant of the farmhouse roof. He varied his pastel application, seemingly working from background to foreground. Delicate strokes in the sky and the hazy tops of distant trees give way to broad middle- and foreground lines made with the sides of his dark pastel crayons. He then worked up details such as cows, fences, and buildings with firm precision. Caked-on colors impart solid mass to the buildings and the stumpy willow. Horizontal strokes of lighter colors animate the middle ground, while vertical and diagonal strokes give the foreground the appearance of long grasses dotted with wildflowers. His final touches to the outlines and branches of the tall trees fix the compositional grid in perfect balance and harmony. Hindsight reveals the gridlike Farm Setting as a forerunner of the stark compositions of Mondrian’s maturity, but his road to such Platonic ideals still lay ahead.

Farm Setting, Three Tall Trees in the Foreground https://collections.artsmia.org/art/3780/

Gift of the Advisory Committee

Composition in White, Black, and Red http://www.moma.org/collection/works/78310

Devotion

Devotion https://www.wikiart.org/en/piet-mondrian/devotion-1908

Composition No. III Blanc-Jaune

Composition No. III Blanc-Jaune https://www.wikiart.org/en/piet-mondrian/composition-no-iii-blanc-jaune-1942

Mrs. Simon Guggenheim Fund

Pier and Ocean 5 (Sea and Starry Sky) http://www.moma.org/collection/works/33419

Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Contemporary Art Fund and Gift of Allan Stone, Class of 1954 © Mondrian/Holtzman Trust

Farmstead https://www.harvardartmuseums.org/collections/object/296855

On the Lappenbrink

On the Lappenbrink https://www.wikiart.org/en/piet-mondrian/on-the-lappenbrink

The Red Mill

The Red Mill https://www.wikiart.org/en/piet-mondrian/the-red-mill-1911

Mill in the evening

Mill in the evening https://www.wikiart.org/en/piet-mondrian/mill-in-the-evening-1905

Evolution

Evolution https://www.wikiart.org/en/piet-mondrian/evolution-1911

Composition in Color A

Composition in Color A https://www.wikiart.org/en/piet-mondrian/composition-in-color-a-1917

Farm Sun

Farm Sun https://www.wikiart.org/en/piet-mondrian/farm-sun

Lighthouse in Westkapelle

Lighthouse in Westkapelle https://www.wikiart.org/en/piet-mondrian/lighthouse-in-westkapelle-1909

Composition No.10

Composition No.10 https://www.wikiart.org/en/piet-mondrian/composition-no-10-1942

Lily

Lily https://www.wikiart.org/en/piet-mondrian/lily

The Sidney and Harriet Janis Collection

Composition in Red, Blue, and Yellow http://www.moma.org/collection/works/80160

Composition with Blue

Composition with Blue https://www.wikiart.org/en/piet-mondrian/composition-with-blue-1937

Although Piet Mondrian’s abstractions may seem far removed from nature, his basic vision was rooted in landscape, especially the flat geography of his native Holland. Beginning with his early naturalistic landscapes, he reduced natural forms to their simplest linear and colored equivalents to suggest their unity and order. Eventually he eliminated such forms altogether, developing a pure visual language of verticals, horizontals, and primary colors that he believed expressed universal forces. In Lozenge Composition with Yellow, Black, Blue, Red, and Gray Mondrian rotated a square canvas to create a dynamic relationship between the rectilinear composition and the diagonal lines of the edges of the canvas. Deceptively simple, his works are the result of constant adjustment to achieve absolute balance and harmony, and they reveal an exacting attention to the subtle relations between lines, shapes, and colors. The artist hoped that his paintings would point the way to a utopian future. This goal was first formulated in Holland around 1916–17 by Mondrian and a small group of like-minded artists and architects who collectively referred to their aesthetic as De Stijl (The Style). Their ideas have been extraordinarily influential for all aspects of modern design, from architecture and fashion to household objects. Gift of Edgar Kaufmann, Jr.

Lozenge Composition with Yellow, Black, Blue, Red, and Gray https://www.artic.edu/artworks/109819/

Along the Amstel

Along the Amstel https://www.wikiart.org/en/piet-mondrian/along-the-amstel-1903

Composition III with Blue, Yellow and White

Composition III with Blue, Yellow and White https://www.wikiart.org/en/piet-mondrian/composition-iii-with-blue-yellow-and-white-1936

Gift of John L. Senior, Jr.

Composition with Red, Blue, Black, Yellow, and Gray http://www.moma.org/collection/works/79002

Composition with Red, Yellow and Blue

Composition with Red, Yellow and Blue https://www.wikiart.org/en/piet-mondrian/composition-with-red-yellow-and-blue-1922

Gift of Philip Johnson

Composition No. II, with Red and Blue http://www.moma.org/collection/works/79816

Purchase

Composition in Oval with Color Planes 1 http://www.moma.org/collection/works/78441

Amaryllis

Amaryllis https://www.wikiart.org/en/piet-mondrian/amaryllis-1910

Place de la Concorde

Place de la Concorde https://www.wikiart.org/en/piet-mondrian/place-de-la-concorde-1943

View of Winterswijk

View of Winterswijk https://www.wikiart.org/en/piet-mondrian/view-of-winterswijk-1899

Girl Writing

Girl Writing https://www.wikiart.org/en/piet-mondrian/girl-writing-1895

Avond (Evening): The Red Tree

Avond (Evening): The Red Tree https://www.wikiart.org/en/piet-mondrian/avond-evening-the-red-tree-1910

Composition with Oval in Color Planes II

Composition with Oval in Color Planes II https://www.wikiart.org/en/piet-mondrian/composition-with-oval-in-color-planes-ii-1914