Lot Essay
The early 1920s in Montparnasse were, for Mondrian, years of severe financial hardship and discouragement. However, despite the public's rejection of his abstract paintings, his ideological devotion to the fundamentals of De Stijl never wavered, and he continued his artistic development with near scientific accuracy.
1922, the year this was painted, was a milestone for the artist, he turned fifty on March 7. His fellow countrymen, J.J. Oud, S.B. Siljper and Peter Alma, organized a retrospective exhibition to celebrate this important event as well as to try and help his poor economic situation. The exhibition was held in Amsterdam at the Stedelijk Museum from March-April of 1922. This was the only retrospective that Mondrian was to see and unfortunately no paintings were sold.
The Doll Mondrian reflects a finely tuned color harmony utilizing the triad of primary colors that was the artist's final conclusion. The subdivision of planes now on a larger scale balances against tautly drawn black lines that keep all the ohter elements in check. The most notable feature of this painting is the scale and dominance of the red square creates Mondrian's classic equilibrium. The black lines stop short of the edges of the painting, harking back to his late Cubist compositions of the early teens.
According to Joop M. Joosten, this painting must certainly be one of a group of four unpublished works dating from 1922, which he has found reference to in his research as having belonged to Petronella van Doesburg, third wife of the artist and architect Theo van Doesburg. Theo van Doesburg first met Mondrian in 1915 and in 1917 they, along with Vilmar Huszar, Antony Kok and Jacobus Johannes Pieter Oud, founded De Stijl, a Dutch magazine of aesthetics and art theory edited and financed by van Doesburg from 1917-1928. In 1924, van Doesburg began to modify the group's original dogma, leading to the eventual break between Mondrian and himself in 1926. Joosten believes that the reference to a large red rectangle in one of the four Petronella van Doesburg Mondrians clearly points to this work. His notes reveal that three of these were sold by Petronella van Doesburg during a trip to America in the 1950s, where she was travelling in connection with a show of her husband's work. According to Joosten, the fact that the Doll Mondrian, although signed and dated on the front, is not signed, dated or titled on the reverse indicates that it most likely belonged to a colleague or friend of the artist, since it was Mondrian's habit to sign, title and date works on the reverse which were exhibited or sold, but works kept by Mondrian or given by him to friends were not thus inscribed.
1922, the year this was painted, was a milestone for the artist, he turned fifty on March 7. His fellow countrymen, J.J. Oud, S.B. Siljper and Peter Alma, organized a retrospective exhibition to celebrate this important event as well as to try and help his poor economic situation. The exhibition was held in Amsterdam at the Stedelijk Museum from March-April of 1922. This was the only retrospective that Mondrian was to see and unfortunately no paintings were sold.
The Doll Mondrian reflects a finely tuned color harmony utilizing the triad of primary colors that was the artist's final conclusion. The subdivision of planes now on a larger scale balances against tautly drawn black lines that keep all the ohter elements in check. The most notable feature of this painting is the scale and dominance of the red square creates Mondrian's classic equilibrium. The black lines stop short of the edges of the painting, harking back to his late Cubist compositions of the early teens.
According to Joop M. Joosten, this painting must certainly be one of a group of four unpublished works dating from 1922, which he has found reference to in his research as having belonged to Petronella van Doesburg, third wife of the artist and architect Theo van Doesburg. Theo van Doesburg first met Mondrian in 1915 and in 1917 they, along with Vilmar Huszar, Antony Kok and Jacobus Johannes Pieter Oud, founded De Stijl, a Dutch magazine of aesthetics and art theory edited and financed by van Doesburg from 1917-1928. In 1924, van Doesburg began to modify the group's original dogma, leading to the eventual break between Mondrian and himself in 1926. Joosten believes that the reference to a large red rectangle in one of the four Petronella van Doesburg Mondrians clearly points to this work. His notes reveal that three of these were sold by Petronella van Doesburg during a trip to America in the 1950s, where she was travelling in connection with a show of her husband's work. According to Joosten, the fact that the Doll Mondrian, although signed and dated on the front, is not signed, dated or titled on the reverse indicates that it most likely belonged to a colleague or friend of the artist, since it was Mondrian's habit to sign, title and date works on the reverse which were exhibited or sold, but works kept by Mondrian or given by him to friends were not thus inscribed.