View from the Dunes with Beach and Piers, Domburg, Piet Mondrian (1909)
This is one of several studies of the seascape at Domburg, The Netherlands, where Mondrian sometimes summered. Here he offers an oblique view of the coastline, depicting dunes on the left, sea on the right, and sky above, rendered in stark orange and blue horizontals. The painting's vibrant coloring and thickly applied lines demonstrate the artist's transition from an earlier naturalism to a period of formal experimentation. Mondrian would later recall that he had preferred to paint "in gray, dark weather or in very strong sunlight, when the density of the atmosphere obscures the details and accentuates the large outlines of objects."
