Willow Grove: Impression of Light and Shadow

Piet Mondrian

c. 1905

Oil on canvas

Dallas Museum of Art

Piet Mondrian is famous for his abstract paintings, but this relatively early work reveals his origins as a landscape painter in the Impressionist tradition. The stout trunks and gnarled branches of the willow trees crisscross the background and reflect in the water in the foreground. The loose, open structure formed by the trees becomes a more prominent lattice of dark branches in some of Mondrian’s later landscapes, heralding the black grids that would eventually structure his abstract paintings. Piet Mondrian is famous for his abstract paintings, but this relatively early work reveals his origins as a landscape painter in the Imp