Tableau # 1, Lithograph, 1921

The lithograph is based on Painting #1 by Mondrian. Mondrian was a member of the Dutch De Stijl movement from its inception in 1917. By the early 1920s, in line with De Stijl practice, he restricted his compositions to predominantly off-white grounds divided by black horizontal and vertical lines that often framed subsidiary blocks of individual primary colors. Tableau I (1922), a representative example of this period, demonstrates the artist's rejection of mimesis, which he considered a reprehensibly deceptive imitation of reality. In 1918 Mondrian created his first "losangique" paintings, such as the later Composition No. 1: Lozenge with Four Lines (1930), by tilting a square canvas 45 degrees. Most of these diamond-shaped works were created in 1925 and 1926 following his break with the De Stijl group over Theo van Doesburg's introduction of the diagonal. Mondrian felt that in so doing van Doesburg had betrayed the movement's fundamental principles, thus forfeiting the static immutability achieved through stable verticals and horizontals. Mondrian asserted, however, that his own rotated canvases maintained the desired equilibrium of the grid, while the 45-degree turn allowed for longer lines.

Provenance: Arthur Rothmann Fine Art New York; Private New England Collection; New England Estate; A Florida Collection.

Dimensions: Height: 26 1/4 in. Width: 20 1/4 in.

excellent condition, in matt impressed: Arthur Rothmann Fine Arts