Drydock at Durgerdam

Piet Mondrian

Watercolor on paper

Gemeentemuseum Den Haag

Drydock at Durgerdam is a watercolor on paper depicting a shipyard at Durgerdam, a coastal village approximately seven kilometers east of Amsterdam, and shows boats of various shapes and sizes, including a sailboat dry-docked for repair in the foreground. The composition is colorful and lively, with Mondrian's nascent interest in geometry already evident in his emphasis on line—mostly diagonal—highlighted throughout in white, animating the buildings, fences, and boat masts. Executed in his mid-twenties, this work belongs to Mondrian's early naturalistic and Impressionist period, during which he painted the Dutch landscape in the tradition of the Hague School before his progressive turn toward abstraction. It stands as the largest and most finished of at least three works Mondrian made depicting this same dry-docked sailboat at Durgerdam, and reflects the influence of his training at the Rijksacademie in Amsterdam and the broader Dutch landscape tradition.