Description
Although Mondrian is best known for his De Stijl paintings and as a founder of modern, abstract art, he began as a landscape and figurative artist. Between 1897 and 1907, he executed about fifty landscapes each year, comprising nearly half of his entire oeuvre. In 1905, a large exhibition of Vincent van Gogh’s work was held at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam. The spindly, bare trees, low horizon, and the lone peasant in Landscape at Loosduinen reveal the influence of the Dutch master upon Mondrian. The drawing’s degree of finish suggests that it was either done on commission or intended for exhibition and sale.
Provenance
[Noah Goldowsky Gallery, New York]
Accession Number
1972.213
Medium
black chalk (extended with water in places), watercolor, and gouache; framing line in graphite (bottom edge)
Dimensions
Sheet: 25.8 x 35.9 cm (10 3/16 x 14 1/8 in.)
Classification
Drawing
Credit Line
Mr. and Mrs. Charles G. Prasse Collection
Tags
Drawing Early Modern (1901–1950) Watercolor Graphite & Pencil Gouache Dutch Color: White Color: Gray
Background & Context
Background Story
Landscape at Loosduinen from 1905 is one of Mondrian's earliest surviving works, executed in the mixed medium of black chalk, watercolor, and gouache that he used for his most careful landscape studies. Loosduinen is a district of The Hague where Mondrian lived during his early career, and the landscape is rendered with the careful observation of Dutch scenery that would provide the starting point for his later abstraction. The 1905 date makes this one of the earliest documented works in Mondrian's career—a study in mixed media that shows the careful observation and compositional discipline that would define his work even after it had been transformed beyond recognition by the development of Neoplasticism.
Cultural Impact
Mondrian's earliest landscape studies are important documents in the history of abstract art because they show the naturalistic starting point from which the most rigorous abstract art of the 20th century developed. Landscape at Loosduinen from 1905 demonstrates the careful observation and compositional discipline that Mondrian brought to his earliest work—the same discipline that would be applied to increasingly abstract compositions until it reached the pure Neoplasticism of his mature work.
Why It Matters
Landscape at Loosduinen is Mondrian at the very beginning: a Dutch landscape in mixed media that shows the careful observation and compositional discipline that would define his work even after it had been transformed by Neoplasticism. The 1905 study is the naturalistic starting point for the most rigorous abstract art of the 20th century.
