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HISTORICAL BACKGROUND Piet Mondrian was born Pieter Cornelias Mondrian Jr. in the Netherlands in 1872 and studied at an art academy called the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten in Amsterdam from 1892 to 1897. Mondrian's works up to 1908 were naturalistic, incorporating successive influences of academic landscapes and still-life painting, Dutch Impressionism and Symbolism. In 1908 he began to make annual trips to Domburg in Zeeland and in 1909, he experimented with Pointillism. By 1911 Mondrian had begun to work in a Cubist …

…fairly small canvas which is, nevertheless, able to create a deep impact on the audience. Colours have been painted straight from the tube with no inconsistencies in the planes - or in other words, no indication of shading, toning or texture. Although Mondrian's works often appear to be composed from different sized and coloured squares, that is not the case, especially in this work. Composition is formulated in terms of lines and their infinite nature.