Oostzijdse Mill along the River Gein by Moonlight

In 1903 the painter who would later strip art down to red, yellow, blue and straight black lines was 31 and still working as a Dutch landscapist. Mondrian had grown up on the Hague School and its moody, low-toned scenes. Here he paints a real windmill — the Oostzijdse Mill, which stood along the river Gein about an hour's cycle south of Amsterdam — under a full moon. Windmills were among his favourite subjects in these years. He keeps the mill's shape but flattens the water and sky and quiets the colours, so the scene feels more designed than observed. A few years before this he had sat in the Rijksmuseum, where the painting hangs today, copying a Hague School canvas to learn how it was done.