Landzicht Farm: Compositional Study

Piet Mondrian, c. 1905

Download1686 × 1270 px View on a wall Edit

Artist: Piet Mondrian (Dutch, 1872–1944)
Medium: Fabricated charcoal on blue laid paper
Size: 46.8 × 62.3 cm (18 7/16 × 24 9/16 in.)
Museum: Art Institute of Chicago
Rights: CC0 — no rights reserved

This drawing relates closely to a painting in the Gemeentemuseum in The Hague (25.1995) in both subject matter and style. However, it is nearly impossible to establish when the drawing was made or whether the drawing or painting came first. Prior to 1908, Piet Mondrian rarely dated his work; moreover, his artistic evolution is hard to trace chronologically since he made two kinds of work simultaneously: formally experimental landscapes and—forced by his meager finances to appeal to buyers—naturalistic scenes. Based on stylistic similarities to other works of that time, Robert Welsh, a scholar of Mondrian’s early work, dated the sheet to around 1905.

Text: Art Institute of Chicago, CC BY 4.0.