Piet Mondriaan (1872-1944)

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.)