Lot Essay
Mondriaan spent the winter of 1906-1907 on a farm belonging to the family of a friend in Oele, a village in the east of Holland near Hengelo. During this period Mondriaan painted many large oil sketches with evening and night landscapes. It was his intention to charge a realistic landscape with meaning, with a certain "mood" transcending which was depicted. This differed clearly from the The Hague School painters who aimed mainly at depicting light-effects in a landscape.
Prof. Welsh has identified the building in this painting as the mill in Oele. Mondriaan painted another version of this mill (ex.cat., Piet Mondriaan and the Dutch landscape, Gallery Voorst van Beest, The Hague 1988, no. 8) where the typical 'vakwerk' is very visible. This type of building was typical for the area of Twente and Gelderse Achterhoek. As Welsh notes both versions depict the surviving mill from the downstream side which explains the areas of whitish paint in front of the mill as foam eminating from the wheel of the mill (letter of Prof.R.P. Welsh to Christie's Amsterdam, 5 October 1991).
Like in the companion version "the light and shadow effects in this watermill are so pervasive that a three-dimensional form once again dissolves into sweeping patterns of colour and brushwork. Only when viewed from a distance does the perspective of the painting fall into focus, and even then the composition can be read as conceived two-dimensionally" (Prof R.P. Welsh, op.cit.)
Sold with a photocertificate by Prof. R.P. Welsh, dated 8 October 1991 (authenticated on basis of a photograph)
See colour illustration
Prof. Welsh has identified the building in this painting as the mill in Oele. Mondriaan painted another version of this mill (ex.cat., Piet Mondriaan and the Dutch landscape, Gallery Voorst van Beest, The Hague 1988, no. 8) where the typical 'vakwerk' is very visible. This type of building was typical for the area of Twente and Gelderse Achterhoek. As Welsh notes both versions depict the surviving mill from the downstream side which explains the areas of whitish paint in front of the mill as foam eminating from the wheel of the mill (letter of Prof.R.P. Welsh to Christie's Amsterdam, 5 October 1991).
Like in the companion version "the light and shadow effects in this watermill are so pervasive that a three-dimensional form once again dissolves into sweeping patterns of colour and brushwork. Only when viewed from a distance does the perspective of the painting fall into focus, and even then the composition can be read as conceived two-dimensionally" (Prof R.P. Welsh, op.cit.)
Sold with a photocertificate by Prof. R.P. Welsh, dated 8 October 1991 (authenticated on basis of a photograph)
See colour illustration