Amsterdam Skyline Viewed from the West
c. 1899
Medium
Watercolor, gouache, and fabricated black chalk, with erasures, on cream wove paper
Dimensions
39.9 × 58.8 cm (15 3/4 × 23 3/16 in.)
Classification
prints and drawing
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
186314
Art Historical Context
Piet Mondrian’s *Amsterdam Skyline Viewed from the West* captures the Dutch capital’s distinctive profile of church towers and rooftops at the close of the nineteenth century. Created around 1899, when the artist was in his late twenties, the work reveals an early fascination with urban structure and the play of light across water and buildings. Though Mondrian would later pioneer the geometric abstractions of De Stijl, this drawing records a more naturalistic moment in his development. Executed in watercolor, gouache, and black chalk on cream wove paper, the piece demonstrates Mondrian’s com...