Piet Mondriaan
"Lente idylle, Spring Idyll"
PIET MONDRIAAN
Amersfoort 1872-1944 New York
SPRING IDYLL
Winterswijk 1900-01
Oil on canvas
75 x 64 cm.
Signed: lower right ‘Piet Mondriaan’
Provenance: Acquired ca. 1940 in Amsterdam by Mrs. I.J. Bantzinger-Wiedenhoff; April 12 1972, Sotheby’s, London: no. 38; April 10 1989 Sotheby’s, Amsterdam: no. 342c; Private collection, The Netherlands.
Exhibited: St. Lucas, Amsterdam 1901; Toronto/Den Haag, 1966; Kunstenaren der idee, Den Haag, 1978; Van Gogh tot Cobra, Stuttgart/Utrecht, 1980-81; Kandinsky-Mondrian, Madrid 1994-1995; Winterswijk (Villa Mondriaan), heden (longtime loan).
Literature: R. Welsh, Early career: the naturalistic periods, New York 1965, p. 35-36. Welsh, Mondrian, 1966, p. 47; R. Welsh, Portrait Art, 1973, p. 357-358.; C. Blotkamp, Kunstenaren der idee: Symbolistische tendenzen in Nederland, ca 1880-1930, 1978, p. 103; H. Henkels, Mondriaan in seinen atelier, 1980, p. 239. H. Henkels, Mondriaan in Winterswijk: een essay, 1979, p. 53-54; H. Henkels, Figuration to abstraction, 1987, p.163, 173; W. Laanstra, Fine Dutch and European Paintings, 1991, p. 17; J. Joosten en R. Welsh, Catalogue Raisonné of the naturalistic works (until early 1911), 1998, p. 179; Magazine Studio 2000 15 (2009) no. 1 (March), ill.
Around 1899, a dramatic change occurs in Mondriaans artworks. The painter approached his subjects in a more spiritualized way. The title ‘Spring Idyll’ suggest a deepened sense which transcends the actual subject: in the symbolistic painting themes of innocence and childlike faith are key.