Truncated View of the Broekzijder Mill on the Gein Wings Facing West

In 1902 Mondrian was 30, living in Amsterdam and earning his rent from copies and scientific drawings, and on free days he went out to the Gein, a small river south-east of the city. He painted the mills along it for years, the Broekzijder mill most of all, coming back to the same few bends of water in different weather. What is unusual here is the framing. The mill is cut so close by the edge of the canvas that it barely fits, its sails turned west, and the long title the museum uses still records that decision. There is no grid in it and no primary colour. The Museum of Modern Art bought the little canvas, about 30 centimetres by 38, in 1950, six years after he died in New York.