Amstel River
Piet Mondrian
Dutch, 1872–1944
1907
A watercolor-and-charcoal depiction of the Amstel River in which Mondrian records the riverfront’s forms and atmosphere while probing for the structural rhythms beneath the scene.
What immediately strikes you is the wide, low horizon and cool, smoky blue-gray washes, overlaid with dark, calligraphic charcoal lines that pick out piers, buildings, and a distant water tower and pull your eye along the river.
This work belongs to Mondrian’s representational phase and shows his early practice of reducing nature to lines and planes—an investigation of form and rhythm that would lead to his later abstract, grid-based paintings.
Medium
Watercolor and charcoal on paper
Dimensions
27 1/8 x 43 1/4" (69 x 110.1 cm)
Classification
Department
Credit
Gift of Sheldon H. Solow and the Lillie P. Bliss Bequest (by exchange)
Accession
388.1984
Palette
Art Terms
Exhibitions
