Mondrian, Piet (1872-1944)
Willow Grove: Impression of Light and Shadow
c.1905
Oil on canvas, 37.47 x 48.26 cm
Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas
Piet Mondrian is famous for his abstract paintings, but this relatively early work reveals his origins as a landscape painter in the Impressionist tradition. The stout trunks and gnarled branches of the willow trees crisscross the background and reflect in the water in the foreground. The loose, open structure formed by the trees becomes a more prominent lattice of dark branches in some of Mondrian’s later landscapes, heralding the black grids that would eventually structure his abstract paintings. (DMA)