Around 1908, the Dutch artist Piet Mondrian (1872–1944) started to paint his first works which radically departed from the realist landscapes which he had been painting over the previous decade or more. He had also become increasingly attracted to spiritual movements, including the writing of Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, who founded the theosophical movement, and Rudolf Steiner’s Anthroposophy. These emphasise the attainment of deeper knowledge of nature by spiritual means, which was significant to his exploratory painting.
Piet Mondrian (1872–1944), The Winkel Mill (Pointillist Version) (1908), oil on canvas, 44.4 x 34.2 cm, Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, TX. Wikimedia Commons.
In this ‘Pointillist’ version of The Winkel Mill which he painted in 1908, his brushstrokes have become shorter and more prominent, resembling the small tiles used by some of the Divisionists, and his chroma has become almost shockingly intense.
Piet Mondrian (1872–1944), Devotion (1908), oil on canvas, 94 x 61…
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