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    Style
    & Work

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    1885

    1907

    The Hague School

    As a young man, Piet Mondrian is influenced by the style of the so-called Hague School, known for naturalistic landscapes in earthy colors. The rather conservative depictions are considered the epitome of Dutch landscape painting at the time.

    ca. 1897
    Farmhouse with Clothesline
    ca. 1903
    Oostzijdse Mill along the River Gein by Moonlight

    Mondrian often paints the small river Gein near Amsterdam and is interested in the reflections in the water. In several paintings, he moves the horizon very far up, giving him plenty of space to explore the relationship between the motif, surface, and space.

    1907 — 1908
    Trees on the Gein: Moonrise [Five Tree Silhouettes along the Gein with Moon]
    ca. 1900 — 1902
    Bleachworks on the Gein [Narrow Farm Building and Trees along the Water]
    1899
    Forest [Wood with Beech Trees]

    The earliest painting in the exhibition depicts a woman with a spindle in front of a table. Of particular interest here is the area behind the woman, where white tiles can be seen. Some think they can already make out a design element in these tiles which, many years later, would become characteristic of Mondrian’s neoplastic works.

    ca. 1893 – 1896
    Woman with Spindle
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    History & Reality

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    1885

    1901

    Becoming an artist Piet Mondrian’s Training

    Initially, Piet Mondrian’s father tries to convince him to pursue a career as an art and drawing teacher.

    ca. 1901
    Piet Mondrian painting in his studio and an unknown man

    He is too worried that his son would not be successful as an independent artist. Nevertheless, despite all his father’s warnings, Mondrian goes to Amsterdam to study art at the Rijksakademie. In 1892, however, he only passes the entrance examination on his second attempt. At this time, the academy has a conservative focus on painting, indebted to the Hague School, and tolerates little artistic experimentation.

    1892
    Portrait of Piet Mondrian

    Mondrian makes a living doing various artistic jobs - giving drawing lessons, copying paintings in the Rijksmuseum and the Stedelijk Museum, and accepting portrait commissions. Nevertheless, due to pressing financial worries, he has to abandon his daytime studies in the summer of 1884 and switch to an evening class that focuses on drawing. Mondrian completes his studies in 1895.

    ca. 1875
    A. Jager, De Rijksacademie van Beeldende Kunsten
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    Friendship

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    1885

    1907

    Simon Maris

    Piet Mondrian and Simon Maris become friends around 1900. Maris comes from a well-known family of artists: His father is Willem Maris, a successful painter of the Hague School.

    1903
    Piet Mondrian and Simon Maris at dinner in Bordeaux

    In the course of his own lifetime, Simon Maris becomes a sought-after portraitist. Although he and Mondrian are stylistically far apart, they share a close friendship that lasts until the 1930s. In his sketchbook, Maris repeatedly draws his friend at work outdoors, and they both spent a lot of time together – not only in their free time, but also while creating art. In 1903, they travel to Spain together.

    1906
    Simon Maris

    Simon Maris has a studio in Amsterdam. Around 1899, he organizes meetings every Saturday, at which artists, writers, and poets met to talk, drink, and eat. Mondrian is a frequent and welcome guest. Through his friend, Mondrian gains a large circle of acquaintances in the art scene of Amsterdam at the turn of the century.

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    Music & Rhythm

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    1885

    1907

    Connection through Rhythm

    Painting, music, and rhythm form a close connection in the work of Piet Mondrian.

    To explain his art as well as the theory of Neoplasticism, Mondrian repeatedly uses the term “rhythm.” For him, rhythm can be expressed not only in music and dance, but also in the visual arts. For the visualization of rhythm, which can be seen throughout his entire oeuvre, Mondrian deliberately uses recurring shapes and colors that structure the pictorial surface, as in the early painting “Geinrust Farm in the Mist” (1906–1907).

    1906 — 1907
    Geinrust Farm in the Mist

    In the late neoplastic works, this can be traced in the tension-filled and never symmetrical compositions. For example, if one looks more closely at “Rhythm of Straight Lines / Composition with Blue, Red, and Yellow” (1937/1942), the viewer’s eye begins to dance along the lines: From right to left, sometimes it speeds up, sometimes the gaze slows down or begins to zoom in or out. Seeing becomes a rhythmic experience.

    1937 — 1942
    Rhythm in Straight Lines [Rythme de lignes droites (et couleur?) / Composition with Blue, Red, and Yellow]