Apple Tree in Blue

Here we find another tree artwork from the career of Piet Mondrian, an artist who paid particular interest to this theme between the years of 1905 and 1912.

Apple Tree in Blue dates to 1908-1909 and was actually created using tempera, rather than the oils that most European artists had been using ever since the end of the Renaissance. It bears an obvious resemblance to another of his tree paintings, namely Apple Tree, Pointilist Version and essentially is the same angled tree, but with a slightly different array of content around it. There is an acceptance of pointilism within the other, though this painting also features the same style of small dabs of blue paint, with white dots inbetween. This approach gives a different effect, depending on how far you are from it - those close up with see a series of individual touches of the brush, whilst those further away will view the merged version, where everything blends in together.

The tree is angled the same way in both, just leaning a little to the right as if it has slowly been shaped by the impact of nature over a number of years. Besides that, though, the atmosphere is one of calm. Mondrian chose here to add a little detail to the area around the foot of the trunk, giving a roughly painted fence which suggests that we are in a private garden or perhaps by the edge of a park. There are also touches of the brush below that, perhaps part of a brick wall, it is fairly hard to tell without knowing the precise location. The circular dabs of paint in the sky which point out from the tree will remind some of the skies (Starry Night) produced by Van Gogh and Mondrian was known to have been an admirer of his fellow Dutchman.

The original tempera artwork, named Apple Tree in Blue, can be found in the collection of the Gemeentemuseum in the Hague. It appears alongside a number of notable artists who were prominent within the 19th and 20th centuries and also offers a good insight into other local Dutch painters. It is considered to be one of the more significant art galleries in the country and receives thousands of visitors each and every year.