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Lot Essay
"In his sketchbooks of circa 1911-1914, Mondrian refers to the positive effects of modern industrial society on man's happiness, and cites as an example the steam-powered Baggermolen [similar to the dredge] supplanting traditional windmills. Mondrian may have been trying to incorporate new iconographic imagery appropriate to, in his own works, the modern world" (R. Welsh, Piet Mondrian 1872-1944, exh. cat., 1966, op. cit., p. 43).
Mondrian executed three oil paintings (Welsh, nos. A531-533) and one large charcoal drawing (Welsh, no. A534) of the dredge motif, of which the present work is the most formally structured. "The broad, thin brushstrokes, except at lower right, generally reinforce the vertical and horizontal polarities of the dredge structure, including in its reflection in the foreground water surface. While the monochromatic brownish coloration remains embedded in the artist's naturalist periods, the compositional structure [of Dredge III] anticipates the abstraction which is to come" (R.P. Welsh and J.M. Joosten, op. cit., p. 365).
Mondrian executed three oil paintings (Welsh, nos. A531-533) and one large charcoal drawing (Welsh, no. A534) of the dredge motif, of which the present work is the most formally structured. "The broad, thin brushstrokes, except at lower right, generally reinforce the vertical and horizontal polarities of the dredge structure, including in its reflection in the foreground water surface. While the monochromatic brownish coloration remains embedded in the artist's naturalist periods, the compositional structure [of Dredge III] anticipates the abstraction which is to come" (R.P. Welsh and J.M. Joosten, op. cit., p. 365).