Piet Mondriaan (1872-1944)

Trees of different shapes and species form a crucial part of Mondriaan's oeuvre. The present lot is part of a mini-series of three paintings, based upon the same setting, with the same apple tree at the left (Welsh A498-500). In one of them (Welsh cat.no. A500) a building can be identified as Anna's farm, located adjacent to café De Vink near the river Gein, on the outskirts of Amsterdam. Mondriaan's fascination with trees, whose verticality so dramatically punctuates the often level horizons of the Dutch landscape in a manner that anticipates his later abstract works, would remain visible throughout his career, resulting in several series in which trees as a subject would slowly evolve into abstract form. Welsh suggests that this Apple Tree series can be considered an anticipation of the Blue Tree series of circa 1908 (fig. 1), which shows a clear direction towards his later abstract paintings.