Amaryllis

Piet Mondrian created Amaryllis in 1910, at a time when he was experimenting with bold colour choices and a modernist style. This was one of several flower artworks from his career, across different mediums.

There are paintings from his career where the colours are so vibrant that we depart from reality to a certain degree. It is as if we are looking at a photographic negative, or that software had been used to completely alter the balance of colours. In reality, it was just Mondrian at his experimental best, capturing form as he saw it, but with a creative use of colour. He would be bold but also consider how each tone would complement each other. He was interested in the theories that lied behind one's choice of palette and frequently would limit himself to just a few colours in order to achieve just the result that he was seeking. Whilst we better now Klee and Kandinsky as masters of colour, Mondrian was never far behind and at this stage of his career he was learning as he went.

The artist was clearly inspired by nature, but close up still life paintings are not frequent within his oeuvre - normally he preferred landscape art at this stage of his career. He also spent a number of summers around this time in Zeeburg, where he would produce countless numbers of seascapes. That said, this is a stunning painting and the content will remind many of some of the highlights from the career of Georgia O'Keeffe, such as Jimson Weed and Oriental Poppies. That said, the vivid colours could easily be more from the Fauvist approach, and so there is a certain amount of merging of styles with this particular artwork.

Several accompanying artworks have been uncovered which show how the artist depicted the same still life content with other mediums. He created several watercolours of these Amaryllis, as well as some drawings in pen and ink. Watercolours were not common within his career, and so those pieces are of particular interest. He may have found indoor still life work ideal for the winter periods, when trips to the beach were not suitable.