
The story
Piet Mondrian died in New York in 1944 with one painting unfinished on the easel: 'Victory Boogie Woogie', a diamond-shaped canvas jumping with little blocks of red, yellow and blue, his attempt to catch the rhythm of Manhattan jazz. It hangs in The Hague, in the museum that owns more of his work than anywhere else, around 300 pieces tracing his path from ordinary Dutch landscapes to the grid of straight lines and primary colors that made his name.
The building suits him. It was the last design of Hendrik Berlage, the architect often called the father of modern Dutch architecture, who died in 1934 before it was finished. It opened in 1935, a calm composition of yellow brick and long low galleries, among the first museums laid out to move visitors gently from room to room.
Around the Mondrians the collection keeps to the same early-20th-century world, with De Stijl furniture, Art Deco objects and a large holding of modern fashion, so the flat geometry on the walls has its chairs and its dresses close by.
Collection
49 works
Composition with Gray LinesPiet Mondrian, 1918
Composition with red, black, yellow, blue and greyPiet Mondrian, 1921
Composition with red, blue, black, yellow and greyPiet Mondrian, 1921
Composition with yellow linesPiet Mondrian, 1933
Czardas DancersErnst Ludwig Kirchner, 1908
Dead HarePiet Mondrian, 1891
Dune IIIPiet Mondrian, 1909
Dune landscape at DomburgPiet Mondrian, 1911
Dunes near DomburgPiet Mondrian, 1910
Farm near DuivendrechtPiet Mondrian, 1916
House in sunlightPiet Mondrian, 1909
Landscape with treesPiet Mondrian, 1912
Lighthouse in WestkapellePiet Mondrian, 1909
Mill at DomburgPiet Mondrian, 1908
Oostzijdse mill viewed from downstream with mill at centerPiet Mondrian, 1905
Painting with White FormWassily Kandinsky, 1913
Self-PortraitVincent van Gogh, 1886
Still Life with Pots, Jar and BottlesVincent van Gogh, 1884
Still Life with Three Birds' NestsVincent van Gogh, 1885
Three girls in yellow straw hats IAugust Macke, 1913
Two arum liliesPiet Mondrian, 1918
Vase with FlowersVincent van Gogh, 1886
View of Moscow from the Window of Kandinsky's Apartment at No. 1, Zubovsky SquareWassily Kandinsky, 1916
Zeeland farmerPiet Mondrian, 1909