This serene landscape was painted in 1907, a critical year in Mondrian’s career during which he explored different styles of representing the pastoral landscape near Amsterdam. Painted in a naturalistic or Impressionistic manner, these landscapes were instrumental in the formation of his theoretical paintings that would advance abstract art. It was in late 1907 that Mondrian introduced a vivid, Fauve palette to his Amsterdam landscapes and developed an eye for primary colors.

The luminous sky and reflections in the water perfectly capture the golden, shadowy light of the gloaming, yet it is not strictly naturalistic; Mondrian has peeled back the outward appearance of nature to conjure the shapes and textures that struck him. Indeed, his search for simplification that would always guide his work is visible in the pink, yellow and green stripes in the water that prefigure the abstracted grids Mondrian would develop just a few years later.

The Figurative Mondrian at Musée Marmottan Monet, an exhibition dedicated to the artist’s figurative work, and David Zwirner’s London exhibition in 2015 have drawn attention to this often overlooked period of this seminal artist’s career.