Two trees with orange foliage against blue sky

Robert Welsh comments on Mondrian's Tree forms from this period that "The most common factor is the tendency to view one or more trees from relatively close-up, so that a silhouette or near silhouette becomes a dominant feature. In his Natural Reality and Abstract Reality essay of 1919-20, Scene II, Mondrian identifies this phenomenon in reference to what he defines as "(...) capricious forms; on the clear sky with moon, the trees stand out in black relief"". The dating of these Tree forms is based on Welsh's believe that by 1909 Mondrian had began to employ a more consistently pointillist style, and that the Tree forms in question were sufficiently advanced to have not been executed before late 1907 or 1908. One can in the present lot, according to Welsh, "(...) not easily ascertain the species of the tree depicted and whether or not the orange of the foliage represents a fall season or reflected sunlight. One can at least be sure that Mondrian has here depicted a daytime setting in full sunlight. The striking orange versus blue complementary color contrast is quite dramatic, and improvised brushwork equally so. All in all, this oil sketch represents one among the artist's most experimental paintings as he began to employ the rainbow palet of the French modernist tradition" (Welsh op cit. 1998, p. 430-432).

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