Piet Mondrian Trees

Unlike some artists, Mondrian did not receive immediate success after declaring himself a painter. Though it was not his dream, Mondrian taught school for at least fifteen years to earn a living. During this time, however, he also painted portraits and copied the works of the masters.

After a move to Amsterdam in 1905, Mondrian crossed paths with John Toorop, a painter who lived on the Isle of Walcheron. It is during this time that Mondrian began to develop his own unique style. His love for nature reflected in many of his earlier paintings. He was especially fond of and interested in trees, which he painted a series of from 1908 to 1913. It is during this time, that Mondrian painted The Tree, which will be discussed in further detail.

As said earlier, Mondrian often painted in series, such as his

Gone was the style that was seen in The Tree. Mondrian now used only pure rectangles arranged in a grid, and created from "flat" horizontal and vertical lines. He also decided to limit his palette to the three primary colors: blue, yellow, and red in addition to black and white. This style was dubbed Neoplasticism, or "The New Style" by Mondrian himself. By 1929, the critics would never again be able to call Mondrian's paintings unbalanced. It was around that time that Mondrian toyed with the symmetry of his paintings, though still keeping an overall balance.

Though the content of the tree series may seem identical, Mondrian's style changes radically as his art progresses and he is introduced to new ideas in art. In 1911, Mondrian first viewed the early cubist works of Picasso and Braque. Soon thereafter, he moved to Paris, where the world of analytical cubism would greatly affect him. Tableau No. 2, painted in 1913, is one of the last of his tree series. Here, the tree that Mondrian chose as his subject is not recognizable. It has undergone a process of dissection into geometric shapes and abstraction. Though this work can be considered cubist, there is one large factor that will split Mondrian from the rests of the cubists, effectively putting him into a category of all his own. That factor is the third dimension.

Not surprisingly, world history can have an adverse and unexpected effect on art history. At the outbreak of World War II in Western

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