Mill at Heeswijk

A post mill turns its whole body to meet the wind. The wooden house that carries the sails sits on one great upright post, and the miller swings the entire thing round with a long beam at the back. Mondrian painted this one from behind, so the steps and that beam come down toward us, with the mill raised on its mound and a star painted on the side of its body. The museum identifies it as the mill of Heeswijk, a village in the Dutch province of North Brabant. If that is right, it is the post mill that stood on the Molenberg there, built in 1778. This small picture, about 36 centimetres tall and signed in the lower right corner, is one of four mills he painted in 1904. The Heeswijk mill stayed on its hill until 1949, when it was demolished.