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Lot Essay
The following fragment of a letter from Mondriaan to his friend Til
Brugman shows proof that Mondriaan was in the possession of ten
impressions of the lithograph, which is based on the painting from
1921, now in the Museum Ludwig in Cologne: "(...) Most of the 10
reproductions I received I gave away; I sold only one to Alma. Van
Eesteren I gave one because he made photographs of some of my paintings etc. etc. So I didn't profit much from the sale of the plates. The sale in Germany is none of my business: they are not being sold separately, I believe, only as part of an album entitled Der Sieg der Farbe
(The victory of colour). (Profit or loss is for the publisher). However I am pleased with the reproduction; my work just does not bring much
material success, anyway (...)" (see: Joop Joosten, Piet Mondrian.
Catalogue Raisonné, Blaricum, 1998, p. 295).
The present lot has always remained in the possession of the heirs of
the artist Peter Alma. It is one of the few signed impressions of the
lithograph. Another signed impression (Provenance: Van Eesteren-Fluck) was sold in these rooms on 24 May 1989, lot 389 (for Dfl. 40,000).
In late 1923, at the request of the German art critic and publisher Adolf Behne, the students of the Bauhaus workshops in Weimar began work on the production of three lithographs to be incorporated in a portfolio of prints titled Sieg der Farbe. This was to be compiled and published by the Photographische Gesellschaft, Berlin, who would themselves contribute 37 reproductions, which, with the three lithographs being reproduced at Weimar, would chart the progress of modern art from the age of Impressionism. With the consent of the respective artists the students chose Van Doesburg's Entwürf für das Haus eines Künstlers (1922), Mondriaan's Composition No. 1 (1921) and Rodchenko's Composition 73 (1919) as a basis for their lithographs.
The following fragment of a letter from Mondriaan to his friend Til Brugman shows proof that Mondriaan was in the possession of ten impressions of the lithograph, which is based on the painting from 1921, now in the Museum Ludwig in Cologne: "(...) Most of the 10 reproductions I received I gave away; I sold only one to Alma. Van Eesteren I gave one because he made photographs of some of my paintings etc. etc. So I didn't profit much from the sale of the plates. The sale in Germany is none of my business: they are not being sold separately, I believe, only as part of an album entitled Der Sieg der Farbe (The victory of colour). (Profit or loss is for the publisher). However I am pleased with the reproduction; my work just does not bring much material success, anyway (...)" (see: Joop Joosten, Piet Mondrian. Catalogue Raisonné, Blaricum, 1998, p. 295).
The present lot has always remained in the possession of the heirs of the artist Peter Alma. It is one of the few signed impressions of the lithograph. Another signed impression (Provenance: Van Eesteren-Fluck) was sold in these rooms on 24 May 1989, lot 389 (for Dfl. 40,000).
Brugman shows proof that Mondriaan was in the possession of ten
impressions of the lithograph, which is based on the painting from
1921, now in the Museum Ludwig in Cologne: "(...) Most of the 10
reproductions I received I gave away; I sold only one to Alma. Van
Eesteren I gave one because he made photographs of some of my paintings etc. etc. So I didn't profit much from the sale of the plates. The sale in Germany is none of my business: they are not being sold separately, I believe, only as part of an album entitled Der Sieg der Farbe
(The victory of colour). (Profit or loss is for the publisher). However I am pleased with the reproduction; my work just does not bring much
material success, anyway (...)" (see: Joop Joosten, Piet Mondrian.
Catalogue Raisonné, Blaricum, 1998, p. 295).
The present lot has always remained in the possession of the heirs of
the artist Peter Alma. It is one of the few signed impressions of the
lithograph. Another signed impression (Provenance: Van Eesteren-Fluck) was sold in these rooms on 24 May 1989, lot 389 (for Dfl. 40,000).
In late 1923, at the request of the German art critic and publisher Adolf Behne, the students of the Bauhaus workshops in Weimar began work on the production of three lithographs to be incorporated in a portfolio of prints titled Sieg der Farbe. This was to be compiled and published by the Photographische Gesellschaft, Berlin, who would themselves contribute 37 reproductions, which, with the three lithographs being reproduced at Weimar, would chart the progress of modern art from the age of Impressionism. With the consent of the respective artists the students chose Van Doesburg's Entwürf für das Haus eines Künstlers (1922), Mondriaan's Composition No. 1 (1921) and Rodchenko's Composition 73 (1919) as a basis for their lithographs.
The following fragment of a letter from Mondriaan to his friend Til Brugman shows proof that Mondriaan was in the possession of ten impressions of the lithograph, which is based on the painting from 1921, now in the Museum Ludwig in Cologne: "(...) Most of the 10 reproductions I received I gave away; I sold only one to Alma. Van Eesteren I gave one because he made photographs of some of my paintings etc. etc. So I didn't profit much from the sale of the plates. The sale in Germany is none of my business: they are not being sold separately, I believe, only as part of an album entitled Der Sieg der Farbe (The victory of colour). (Profit or loss is for the publisher). However I am pleased with the reproduction; my work just does not bring much material success, anyway (...)" (see: Joop Joosten, Piet Mondrian. Catalogue Raisonné, Blaricum, 1998, p. 295).
The present lot has always remained in the possession of the heirs of the artist Peter Alma. It is one of the few signed impressions of the lithograph. Another signed impression (Provenance: Van Eesteren-Fluck) was sold in these rooms on 24 May 1989, lot 389 (for Dfl. 40,000).