Dunes and Sea

Around 1912, the painter who would soon insist that art needed only straight lines and three primary colours was standing on the Dutch coast doing the opposite: low dunes, rough grass, and a flat grey sea. Theo van Doesburg was still largely self-taught here, working close to the Amsterdam Impressionists and to Van Gogh, whose thick, direct brushwork he openly admired. The paint goes on in short, loaded strokes that follow the slope of the sand, and the North Sea light does most of the work. No theory yet, no rules about colour. His first fully abstract painting was still about four years off.