PIET MONDRIAN
1872 Amersfoort – 1944 New York
GEINRUST FARM WITH ISOLATED TREES UNDER PINK SKY
watercolor on paper, 51 x 75 cm
singed lower right: Piet Mondriaan
date: 1906-07
provenance:
the artist’s estate, Paris;
Dr. Jan van van der Hoeven Leonard (1882-1951), 1912;
Mrs. Lina Woltjer – Van der Hoeven Leonhard (1905-1988), inherited from the above, The Hague;
Modern and Contemporary art sale, Christies Amsterdam, December 13th 1989, lot 189;
private collection, acquired at the sale above.
literature:
Joop P. Joosten and Robert P. Welsh, Piet Mondrian, Catalogue Raisonné; Catalogue Raisonné of the Naturalistic Works (until early 1911), vol. I, New York, 1998, A451
Guided by the course of the Gein River, the viewer’s gaze is led into an expansive landscape in which water and sky dominate the scene. Larger elements, such as the trees and the farmhouse Geinrust situated along the left bank, appear diminished in scale and are subsumed within the breadth of the setting. The landscape is devoid of anecdotal detail and conveys a sense of stillness and quietude.
The Gein River, located approximately ten kilometers south of Amsterdam, served as a major source of inspiration for Piet Mondrian in the years 1906 and 1907. The artist produced an extensive body of work in this area; at least fifteen distinct compositions depicting the farmhouse Geinrust are known. The systematic exploration of a single motif through multiple, carefully differentiated variations is a defining characteristic of Mondrian’s artistic practice. During this period, Mondrian lived and worked in Amsterdam and frequently set out on his bicycle loaded with drawing and painting materials to study the surrounding countryside.
From around 1900 onward, Mondrian’s early work can be broadly divided into two principal categories. The first consists of naturalistic compositions depicting his immediate surroundings, executed in the idiom of Amsterdam Impressionism. The second category—into which the present watercolor falls—comprises works characterized by faintly stylized forms, a dreamlike atmosphere, and the presence of elements imbued with symbolic undertones that point toward a reality beyond the merely visible, in keeping with the tradition of Dutch Symbolism.
Works from this early period are marked by a deliberate positioning of motifs parallel to the picture plane and by carefully calibrated relationships of these motifs to the edges of the composition. Many exhibit a pronounced sense of symmetry, often achieved through reflections in still water. At the same time, Mondrian skillfully avoided the rigidity and theatricality that such compositional devices might entail, employing instead a fluid and animated painterly approach. The quality of his landscapes from this period demonstrates a level of mastery that clearly distinguishes him from of his Dutch contemporaries.
Through an intensive and sustained engagement with nature, Mondrian increasingly began to question how visible reality might be explained and represented. Gradually, his artistic inquiry moved beyond naturalistic depiction toward the search for a deeper, spiritual order underlying the observable world—a pursuit that would later inform his transition to abstraction. In this context, Mondrian became a member of the Theosophical Society in May 1909, joining its Dutch section. His affiliation with the movement, which he maintained for the rest of his life, provided an important intellectual framework for his evolving concept of art as a means of revealing universal principles rather than merely describing appearances.
Mondrian employed Cubism as an analytical method to dismantle naturalistic representation and to reveal the structural principles underlying visible reality. Rather than adopting Cubism’s fragmented appearance, he embraced its conceptual framework, using it to reconfigure his naturalistic vocabulary and to move beyond descriptive representation. Cubism thus became the artistic language through which Mondrian found the means to reinvent his engagement with nature. A compelling example of how the landscapes Mondrian painted along the Gein continued to inspire him during his years in Paris can be seen in fig. 1. The artistic foundation for this work lies in Geinrust Farm (fig. 2). Within a few years, this process culminated in the development of geometric abstraction—a contribution that secured Mondrian’s position as one of the most influential artists of the twentieth century.
Fig. 1. Piet Mondrian, Composition No. II, 1913, oil on canvas, 88 x 115 cm, Köller Müller Museum, inv. no. KM 108.406. Fig. 2. Piet Mondrian, Geinrust Farm, watercolor on paper, 310 x 410 mm, 1907, Kunstmuseum The Hague, inv.no. 0631567, bequest Salomon B. Slijper.
The first owner of this large watercolor was one of the earliest collectors of Mondrian’s work. Dr. Jan van der Hoeven Leonhard, a physician based in Amsterdam, acquired works by Mondrian dating from between 1898 and 1907. It is possible that part of this collection was assembled through payments in the form of artworks provided by Mondrian himself. Van der Hoeven Leonhard’s daughter Lina, who later inherited the collection, visited Mondrian in Paris and went dancing with him—an activity for which Mondrian was known to have a great passion.
Piet Mondrian was born in Amersfoort, the Netherlands, and trained at the Rijksakademie in Amsterdam. In his early career, he worked primarily as a landscape painter, drawing inspiration from the Dutch countryside and riverine environments. These works, grounded in naturalistic observation, provided Mondrian with a framework for investigating compositional balance, rhythm, and the relationship between form and space. Around 1900, his practice began to shift as he sought to move beyond the depiction of appearances toward a more ordered and essential representation of reality. This search was further shaped by Symbolism and by his interest in spiritual philosophy, particularly Theosophy, which he joined in 1909.
Mondrian’s move to Paris in 1911 marked a decisive turning point in his career. There, he encountered Cubism, which offered an analytical language through which to rethink his relationship to nature. By systematically reducing natural forms to linear and planar relationships, he developed an increasingly abstract visual vocabulary. This process culminated in Neo-Plasticism, his mature style of geometric abstraction based on vertical and horizontal lines and a restricted palette of primary colors. In his later years, spent largely in the United States, Mondrian continued to refine this language in dialogue with modern urban life. He died in New York in 1944, having secured his position as a central figure in the history of twentieth-century modern art.