PMdB > Reconstructions > Early Works
Composition with Colour Planes and Grey Lines 2 and 3, 1918
Both lost paintings were owned by Helene Kröller-Müller and Helene Brückmann-Kröller and were lost to a fire in 1944.
There were three 1918 paintings with the title Composition with Colour Planes and Grey Lines, designated 1, 2 and 3. No. 1, B92, is in a private collection in Switzerland and photographs are available for reference, both in colour (fig. 2) and an early black and white shot (fig. 1) It is noted that Mondrian avoided adjacent repetitions of a colour almost entirely (there is an overlap of blue planes at top middle) and that there are different rules for white and grey. |
fig. 1 B92, 1919
fig. 2 B92
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It has been assumed that three works painted in the same year with virtually identical titles would share similar colour schemes, although one correspondent has pointed out that this might not be the case: one or both could, for example use the colours of B95. The size is known to be 49x61cm. The black-and-white image of B93 (fig. 3) from the estate of Vilmos Huszár suggests adjacent reds at the top and blues on the right (fig. 4)
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fig. 3 B93
fig. 4 B93 reconstruction
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The photograph of B94 (fig. 5) was prnted in De Stijl magazine in 1919. The contrast is much softer than the photograph of B93 and the colours more difficult to distinguish: Modrian commented that 'The yellow is quite pale' in a letter to Van Duesburg. Subjectively, I think there may be too much white and grey in the reconstruction.
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fig. 5 B94
fig. 6 B94 reconstruction
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Sources
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