Field with Oak Trees at Dusk

Details

Piet Mondriaan (1872-1944)
Field with Oak Trees at Dusk
signed with initials 'P.M.' (lower right); inscribed and dated 'Herinnering aan een musiekavond - 13 Dec.'06.' (lower left)
chalk on cardboard
21 x 24 cm.
Executed in 1906

Provenance

A gift from the artist to Mien Philippona, 13 December 1906.
Anonymous sale, Christie's, Amsterdam, 5 June 1996, lot 258.
Anonymous sale, Christie's, Amsterdam, 9 June 1998, lot 206.
Acquired at the above sale by the present owner.

Literature

Joop M. Joosten, Robert P. Welsh, Piet Mondrian I Catalogue Raisonné of the Naturalistic Works (until early 1911), Blaricum 1998, no. A588, pp. 390-391 (illustrated).

Exhibited

Amsterdam, Gemeentearchief, Mondriaan aan de Amstel 1892-1912, 18 February - 15 May 1994.

Special Notice

Artist's Resale Right ("Droit de Suite"). Artist's Resale Right Regulations 2006 apply to this lot, the buyer agrees to pay us an amount equal to the resale royalty provided for in those Regulations, and we undertake to the buyer to pay such amount to the artist's collection agent.

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Lot Essay

Piet Mondriaan worked in Twente in 1906 and immediately after his first stay there he presented a few large drawings. The use of colour is limited, but is replaced with a richness of details. All elements act together to make the overpowering reality visible. In this drawing Mondriaan combined the attention for detail with the suggestive forms of the faded chalk. In that way he captured the silent landscape in Twente by night. Especially this theme, the field with the trees, occupied Mondriaan in a way that even during a houseconcert by concertpianist Mien Philippona he made sketches of his surroundings. At the end of the evening he thanked the family for a wonderful evening by giving the sketches to them. It is important to acknowledge Mondriaan's focus on drawing in this period. (See: Hans Janssen, Mondriaan in het Gemeentemuseum Den Haag, Zwolle 2008, pp. 79-80.)

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