Forest

Piet Mondrian

Oil on canvas

Gemeentemuseum Den Haag

This intimate oil on canvas depicts a dense woodland scene, rendered in the naturalistic and impressionistic style that defined Mondrian's early career in the Netherlands. Soft, earthy tones and dappled light filter through the forest's vertical trunks, reflecting the influence of the Dutch Hague School tradition in which Mondrian was steeped through his uncle, the painter Frits Mondriaan. Born in Amersfoort in 1872, Piet Mondrian began his career as a schoolteacher who painted landscapes in his spare time, producing pastoral and woodland scenes like this one before his dramatic evolution into the iconic geometric abstraction for which he is now world-famous. Displaying this rare early Mondrian is a conversation-starting treasure — a glimpse into the naturalistic roots of one of the 20th century's most revolutionary artistic minds, painted by the same hand that would later produce the boldly gridded masterpieces that changed the face of modern art forever.