Landscape with mowed field II

After having spent his youth in Winterswijk and his study time in Amsterdam, Mondriaan turns to Twente between circa 1906 and early 1908. Much less attention has been paid to this area than to the Gelderland Achterhoek, Amsterdam and surroundings, Brabant and Zeeland, all areas in which Mondrian worked before his departure for residence in Paris around the winter of 1911. According to Robert Welsh this partly has to do with the more easily identifiable sites for the alternative areas, and also because those in Twente have only occasionally been cited as such. It was together with his painter friend Albert G. Hulshoff Poll (1883-1957) that Mondriaan chose to make artistic excursions to Hengelo in the easternmost region of Overijssel. This is where Albert's family owned a house, where Mondriaan may well have lodged during his visits. The landscapes attributable to this region contain a mixture of farm and woodland, with a preference for evening landscapes. Welsh identifies an essential feature in the Twente landscapes: the essen, referring to the cultivated farmlands surrounding the Eastern villages. The fertilizing, sowing and reaping is built up a mound or field of humus, which causes a characteristic 'swelling' of the field towards the centre, that distinguishes it from the flat meadows in the Western areas.
The present lot was identified as a Twente landscape on the basis of its slightly uneven ground surfaces, open fields bordered by rows of trees and lack of irrigation canals, which accords with landscapes around Hengelo. 'The red cloud' (A569, fig.1), now in the Haags Gemeentemuseum, shows a very similar landscape, with a comparable curve and horizon. A comparable watercolour, 'Landscape with Mowed Field I' (A566) is similar in size, style and medium. The setting is identical, the main difference being the enlarged foreground in the present lot. The two watercolours were possibly executed at the same day around 1907.