Polders with a barge with a fence near Amsterdam I., 1899-1900, oil on canvas, private collection.

This painting shows a barge in a small waterway near Amsterdam. In the background on the left is the Royal Wax Candle Factory, which Piet Mondrian captured in a separate painting that same year. Mondrian knew the area well; he lived just a stone’s throw away from the factory on Ruysdaelkade at the time. At the time, the factory was often depicted as representing “the precious heritage of a glorious past,” depicting the young women who worked there for a pittance. Mondrian’s contemporaries Isaac Israëls and George Hendrik Breitner picked up on this social aspect in their drawings and paintings. Mondrian was not so enamored with Amsterdam and its industrial environment, nor was he interested in this particular social aspect. By depicting the Royal Wax Candle Factory or the Stadhouderskade, Mondrian instead wanted to emphasize the unchanging beauty of nature. Sometimes he focuses on the reflection of the factory in the water, other times he draws attention to the quiet industrial landscape surrounding the factory.

Mondrian painted the boat with fleeting brushstrokes. The texture of the canvas is particularly visible at the bottom of the painting. What makes this painting special is that it is signed twice by Mondrian. In the lower left corner it says “Piet Mondriaan”, and in the lower right corner it also says “Mondrian”.

Want to learn more? You can find out more about Polder with Boat Abandoned in Amsterdam I. and many other works by Mondrian in Hans Janssen’s book ‘Mondrian at the Gemeentemuseum Den Haag’ (2008).