In the hall.

Piet Mondriaan was born in this house on 7 March 1872. It is immediately clear  that the house does not look as it did at that time. On this side (point at Schatkamer) were the family’s living quarters. On the other side (now the Biography room) was the school of which Piet’s father was the headmaster. The hall where we are now was the schoolyard, not covered as it is now. In the 1980’s the building was in bad repair. Leo Heijdenrijk, an architect, and his wife Cis were concerned about this and started the Mondriaan Foundation in 1985. Heijdenrijk restored the building and converted it to its present state: Museum Mondriaanhuis.

Piet, the second of the ultimately four Mondriaan children, was born on 7 March 1872 at approximately 6 AM. The birth took place by the light of a candle or an oil lamp: there was no gaslight in the house. Piet lived in this house until he was eight years old. Frankly, Piet’s father did not much like living in Amersfoort. He came from The Hague and living in a small provincial town, which Amersfoort was at that time, was quite a transition for him.

The Kortegracht at the time was not an idyllic place to live. The canal was part of the sewage system and many children suffered from whooping cough. Mondriaan’s lungs remained a weak spot all his life.

Photograph 1. The flooding of the Kortegracht.

The canal frequently flooded, as shown on this 1916 photograph. When the Valleikanaal was dug, however, the drainage improved considerably. Before this the living situation was far from ideal, certainly for Piet’s somewhat sickly mother. This, plus the fact that Piet’s stubborn, orthodox protestant father regularly had problems with the Schoolboard, were the main reasons for the family’s move to Winterswijk (in the East of the country) in 1880. Some consolation for Amersfoort is that Piet’s father was even less satisfied living in Winterswijk than he was in Amersfoort.

2. In de Schatkamer (The Treasury)

In the Treasury, the original living quarters, a number of Mondriaan’s early works are exhibited. They were given on loan  by the heirs of dr Johannes Esser.

Esser was a very colourful personality, who initially was a GP, but later became one of the pioneers of plastic surgery. At one time he also was the Dutch chess champion. As a GP his patients included artists such as Jan Sluyters and Breitner who paid him in kind, i.e with paintings. Thus Esser became involved in the visual arts and started a collection which included a number of early figurative works by Mondriaan. He did not much appreciate his later style.

Originally, Piet’s style of painting was naturalistic as shown in these two drawings of ‘De Lappenbrink’ (the Cloth Market) in Winterswijk. Piet’s uncle Frits, a painter of some merit, was his teacher in his youth. He helped him to acquire a teaching certificate in drawing.

Next to these two drawings a charcoal drawing of a chrysanthemum. All through his life, even in his non-figurative period, Mondriaan frequently painted flowers (ask why?). The reason is that his non-figurative work did not sell and therefore it was necessary for him to continue painting still lifes which flowers, which did sell. This drawing is signed ‘P. Mondriaan’, but this is not Mondriaan’s signature. The drawing was not signed, which was not to Johannes Esser’s liking and therefore he signed it himself.

In 1892 Piet left for Amsterdam where he enrolled in the Academy for the Visual Arts. He lived at various addresses in Amsterdam and often left the city to paint alongside the river Amstel or Gein; ‘en plein air’ out in the open, like the impressionists.

When we compare these drawings to the paintings on the left hand wall we see that these show a certain development: Mondriaan appears to be interested in painting landscapes in the evening. In twilight the colours fade somewhat and the outlines are not as defined: a contrast with the detailed drawings of De Lappenbrink. Some ‘experts’ claim to see in the haystack, painted up front, his later interest in flat surfaces and his abandoning perspective.

Nevertheless, the tree in the foreground confers depth to the painting. Equally, in his painting of the wooden bridge some experts see Mondriaan’s preference for horizontal and vertical lines.

A sketch of Mondriaan’s further development.

In Amsterdam Mondriaan became interested in theosophy, especially in the book ‘The Secret Doctrine’ by Helena Blavatsky, a somewhat obscure mixture of science, philosophy and religion (world religions). It is hard to summarize the essence of theosophy, but one aspect in particular is important for Mondriaan’s work, viz. the notion of evolution. Mankind will develop (evolve) to an ever higher degree of spirituality and will turn away from material matters. It is a development towards harmony in which opposites will cease to exist. We see this idea illustrated in Mondriaan’s work by his gradually moving away from the concrete, anecdotic and spatial representation in favour of abstraction where the vertical and horizontal lines seem to form a harmonious framework which connects the flat surfaces.

Photograph 2 De rode wolk (‘The Red Cloud’ 1907)

The fact that Mondriaan is moving away from the realistic representation of reality we see for instance in the painting ‘ The Red Cloud’. We notice how quickly Mondriaan develops a more non-figurative style compared to his style in De knotwilgen (‘The Pollard-willows’)(1905?).

 Photograph 3 Molen bij zonlicht (‘A mill in sunlight 1908’)

Another example from this period is Molen bij zonlicht ( ‘A Mill in Sunlight’) from his luminist period. Critics harshly criticised this painting and called it ‘a bloodshot mill with clouds like Swiss Emmenthaler cheese’. Clearly Mondriaan was far ahead of his time. Holland was becoming too provincial for him and in 1912 he leaves for Paris, the centre of the avant-garde artists. However, World War I intervenes, moreover Piet’s father is seriously ill and Piet decides to return to Holland. Here he meets painters such as Theo van Doesburg and Bart van der Lek whom he regards as kindred spirits. Together with other painters and architects, among them Oud and Rietveld, they formed the movement De Stijl (The Style) named after the magazine of the same name of which the first issue appeared in 1917, i.e. a hundred years ago. The artists united in De Stijl aspired to harmony and balance by means of abstract geometric design in  blocks of the primary colours: red, yellow and blue. Partly, De Stijl can be seen as a reaction to WW I, i.e. resistance against the status quo and a utopian belief in progress. After WW I Mondriaan quickly returned to Paris and that is where we are going now.

3 Reconstruction of Mondriaan’s studio in the Rue du Départ, Paris.

For information about the studio: see the description.

Photograph 4 Composition no. 3 with coloured surfaces (1917)

This picture illustrates the ever increasing abstraction in Mondriaan’s work. However, he does not yet use the primary colours red, yellow and blue. Moreover, the coloured surfaces still seem to ‘dance’ in space. In the end Mondriaan will give up perspective altogether by connecting the coloured surfaces by black lines, thus creating a flat surface.

Photograph 5. Mondriaan in his studio.

 Many black and white photographs of Mondriaan in his studio have been handed down to us. It is possible to infer the colours in his studio from the shades of grey in a well-known painting of his which appears on this photograph.

4  Biography room.

This room will change because a flight of stairs leading to the upper storey is going to be built. The room itself will remain partly as it is now.

 - Immediately to the right the crib (not the original one) with the text: ‘Behold, I was shapen in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me’.( Psalm 51:5).

This illustrates the orthodox protestant family in which Mondriaan grew up.

- Upstairs along the wall in chronological order the pictures of characteristic works from the different periods of Mondriaan’s development as an artist. A clear illustration of the evolution towards non-figurative work.

-  Scale model of the house annex school as it was in Mondriaan’s time. The biography room used to be the classroom. Also notice the schoolyard with water pump and latrines before the yard was roofed over.

- Piet’s father was a skilful draughtsman who made several memorial tables on the occasion of official events. Sometimes Piet junior assisted him. Piet’s father was not opposed to Piet’s painting ambition and saw his son’s future as a respectable drawing master. His attitude changed when Piet enrolled in the State Academy for the Visual Arts and planned to become an artist.

- Photographs of the Amsterdam studio. Piet lived at different Amsterdam addresses. The difference between this studio and the modern studio in Paris with its clean lines is obvious. See also the large photograph on the wall at the back.

- Piet twice joined the competition for the Prix de Rome, but was rejected both times, allegedly because of insufficient knowledge of the human anatomy.

- Photographs of the women in Piet’s life. Piet was never married and remained childless. Women did, however, play an important part in his life. He once was engaged to Greta Heijbroek and almost got married to Lily Bles who was forty years his junior. Piet even made a wooden crib, in case a baby was born. Lily’s father forbade the marriage, though.

- Corner with the ginger jar.

Photograph 6 Stilleven met gemberpot II (1912) (‘Still life with Ginger Jar II’)

In Paris Mondriaan feels attracted to the cubist paintings of Picasso and Braque. He himself also experiments with cubism, as shown e.g. in this ‘Still Life with Ginger Jar’.

-Portable gramophone. Piet admired jazz music, especially boogie woogie. He had a portable gramophone which he painted red.

- ‘ Victory Boogie Woogie’. In the last period of his life Mondriaan’s style changed. The black lines between the coloured surfaces disappeared and were replaced by small coloured surfaces. He also gave his paintings names once more.

Photograph 7 ‘Broadway Boogie Woogie’ (1942-‘43)

Instead of e.g. ‘Composition in Red, Yellow and Blue’ he calls his paintings e.g. ‘Broadway Boogie Woogie’ and ‘New York City’. These compositions are said to be inspired by the New York streetplan with its straight lines and right angles.

Photograph 8.’ Victory Boogie Woogie’

In 1944 Mondriaan begins to paint his ‘ Victory Boogie Woogie’. Until his death in the same year he will continue to work on it. The work remained unfinished. Close up it looks quite bizarre. For the small coloured surfaces he used pieces of coloured tape; the advantage of this method was that he could easily remove them if the result did not satisfy him. The Dutch state bought his work in 1997 for 82million guilders, which at the time raised a lot of eyebrows. A gift from The Netherlands Bank, with the intention thus to mark the transition from guilder to euro, enabled the State to buy the work. At the time Minister Zalm the Minister of Finance, had to approve of the purchase and when he officially opened the biography room in the Mondriaan huis he offered to finish the painting for free as compensation for the commotion caused by this purchase.

This work, like many other Mondrian paintings is to be seen in the Municipal Museum in The Hague.

At the end of the tour please draw your audience’s attention to:

- 6 May through 3 September 1917. KAdE: The colours of De Stijl. An exhibition on the use of colour by six Stijl members.

- September through December 1917. Rietveld pavilion. Three pavilions designed by Rietveld are the focus of this exhibition. Also on view the Amersfoort chair and other Rietveld furniture from the 1950’s.