Oostzijdse Mill along the River Gein by Moonlight - Piet Mondrian (c. 1903)

Moonlight

Oil on canvas

Rijksmuseum

This tranquil nocturnal landscape depicts the Oostzijdse windmill near Abcoude, set along the River Gein and bathed in cool moonlight, with the mill's silhouette reflected in the still water of the foreground. Painted in oil on canvas around 1903, the work exemplifies Mondrian's early naturalistic and Impressionist manner, deeply influenced by the Hague School tradition in which both his uncle and his artistic mentors worked. Rather than offering a strictly realistic rendering, Mondrian modified lines and colours to achieve a non-realistic, decorative effect — a subtle early departure from pure naturalism. The painting now resides in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, where it stands as a key document of the artist's formative years before his celebrated transformation into the geometric abstraction of Neoplasticism.