A Farmhouse Behind A Fence

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A farmhouse behind a fence
Piet Mondriaan - A farmhouse behind a fence - A361a (addition 2015) - Piet Mondrian, catalogue raisonne.jpg
Artist Piet Mondrian   OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg
Yearc. 1904
Medium oil paint, canvas
Dimensions20.5 cm (8.1 in) × 29.1 cm (11.5 in)
CollectionUnknown, Kunstmuseum Den Haag   OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg
Identifiers RKDimages ID: 279649

A Farmhouse Behind A Fence is a painting by the Dutch artist Piet Mondrian. [1] It was completed early in his career, in 1904, when "the artist abruptly broke from his former life and went into rural seclusion in Brabant, a province in southern Netherlands." [2] He painted numerous canvases on a rural theme: "in his initial public appearances as a professional artist Mondrian was more concerned with supplying a product that would sell than defining his own personal style." [3]

Such paintings were before he developed the now more familiar abstract visual approach of the De Stijl movement. Nevertheless, the painting still shows the beginning of Mondrian's evolution: during this period "he produced paintings of traditional subject matter—Dutch farmhouses and windmills and rivers and forests—but rendered these themes in a very untraditional way ... [he] composed his representations, rather, out of bold abstract planes and broad brushstrokes of saturated colour." [2]

Despite the existence of a signature at the bottom left of the canvas, it was only attributed to Mondrian in 2004, by the art historian Joop Joosten. [4] The painting was added to the collection of the Kunstmuseum, The Hague, Netherlands in 2020. [4] It was acquired from a private collection hanging in Hoorn. [5]


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References

  1. "10918x1y10015485". Kunstmuseum Den Haag. 2020-02-06. Retrieved 2023-05-04.
  2. 1 2 Weber, Nicholas Fox (2018). Piet Mondrian's early Years: The winding path to straight abstraction (PhD Thesis thesis). [Groningen]: University of Groningen.
  3. Blotkamp, Carel (2001). Mondrian: The Art of Destruction. Reaktion Books. p. 22. ISBN   978-1-86189-100-6.
  4. 1 2 "Piet Mondriaan". rkd.nl. Retrieved 2023-05-04.
  5. "Piet Mondriaan | Paintings prev. for Sale | A farm behind a fence". Simonis & Buunk. Retrieved 2023-05-04.