Lot Essay
To be included in the Catalogue Raisonné on the artist's work being prepared by Robert Welsh and Joop Joosten.
Throughout his whole career, even while he was devoted to pure abstraction, Mondriaan continued to paint flowerpieces. As a result, the dating of these still lifes is relatively difficult. This lot dates probably from around 1900-1901. According to A.P. van den Briel the flowers are a category by themselves, a closed privileged group: "Sometimes by fits and starts, he wanted to paint them just like that. This has a much deeper meaning. A memory of something vastly beautiful he had experienced, and something sad. He did remark once or twice that it hurt him to do those flowers. They reflect much of Mondrian's inner life as an individual and as a painter." (letter from A.P. van den Briel to J.M. Harthoorn, Mondrian's creative realism, Mijdrecht 1980, p.15)
Please compare the present lot with the comparable watercolour in the Sidney Janis Family Collection, New York, see exh. cat. The Hague, Gemeente Museum, Mondriaan in the Sidney Janis Family Collections, 1988, no.53.
See colour illustration
Throughout his whole career, even while he was devoted to pure abstraction, Mondriaan continued to paint flowerpieces. As a result, the dating of these still lifes is relatively difficult. This lot dates probably from around 1900-1901. According to A.P. van den Briel the flowers are a category by themselves, a closed privileged group: "Sometimes by fits and starts, he wanted to paint them just like that. This has a much deeper meaning. A memory of something vastly beautiful he had experienced, and something sad. He did remark once or twice that it hurt him to do those flowers. They reflect much of Mondrian's inner life as an individual and as a painter." (letter from A.P. van den Briel to J.M. Harthoorn, Mondrian's creative realism, Mijdrecht 1980, p.15)
Please compare the present lot with the comparable watercolour in the Sidney Janis Family Collection, New York, see exh. cat. The Hague, Gemeente Museum, Mondriaan in the Sidney Janis Family Collections, 1988, no.53.
See colour illustration