According to Prof. Robert P. Welsh this picture belongs to the so called "Blue Tree Period" (circa 1908). In a letter to Christie's, dated 18 December 1990 he writes: "My only suggestion regarding the meaning of the painting within Mondrian's oeuvre is that it is about the only Mondrian painting which actually includes images of stars in contrast to the many moons which appear in his evening landscape settings circa 1906-08. Thus, although Scene III in his 1919-20 autobiographical essay "Natural Reality and Abstract Reality" takes place before a "bright, starry sky above a stretch of sand" what he says about stars offering a superior means of representing "primordial relationships" than moons (see esp. Seuphor, p. 315, last full paragraph) seems to be a principle embodied in the Night Landscape more concretely than in any other Modrian painting I can think of".

Sold with a photocertificate by Prof. Robert P. Welsh

See colour illustration