Bijenstand 3, Laren

My friend Bart van Leck lived at the villa De Boschhoek from 1916 to 1919.

It’s highly likely that Piet Mondrian’s abstraction would have looked different if he hadn’t crossed paths with Bart van der Leck. They probably met in late 1915 or early 1916, and they hit it off immediately. The two artists saw each other often after Van der Leck moved from The Hague to the studio villa De Boschhoek in Laren on 13 April 1916. He lived there until May 1919, when he and his family relocated to a house on Eemnesserweg in Blaricum that he had designed with his brother.

Mutual influence

Mondrian and Van der Leck strongly influenced each other in the period 1916–17. In imitation of Mondrian, Van der Leck began simply entitling his paintings “compositions” and gradually departed from figuration. Mondrian, meanwhile, was fascinated by Van der Leck’s use of colour. Van der Leck had by then embraced abstraction in earnest, and in his attempt to capture the essence of painting, he had restricted his use of colour in 1915 to red, yellow and blue, supplemented by black and white. Mondrian regarded the primaries as the purest hues, and, inspired by Van der Leck, he began limiting himself to them too, though at first he toned them down by mixing them with white.

Work at the Docks
© Bart van der Leck / Work at the Docks / 1916
An exact technique

Mondrian was deeply impressed by Van der Leck’s “exact” technique of painting solid planes in primary colours. These differed markedly from the painterly fields of colour in the cubist works Mondrian had painted in Paris under the influence of Picasso, such as Composition in Oval with Color Planes 2. Van der Leck’s example spurred Mondrian toward the innovations visible in the works he produced from 1917 in his studio in Huisje De Vries.

Composition in Oval with Color Planes 2
Piet Mondrian / Composition in Oval with Color Planes 2 / 1914
Composition 1917–1918
© Bart van der Leck / Composition 1917–1918 / 1917-1918
Neo-plasticism

Mondrian wrote the work that would become the series of essays “De nieuwe beelding in de schilderkunst” ("Neo-Plasticism in Painting") in close consultation with Van der Leck. After writing each section, he would get Van der Leck to read it. The two men’s ideas and works would be of seminal importance for the De Stijl movement and the eponymous magazine founded by Theo van Doesburg.

De Stijl, vol. 1, no. 2
Theo van Doesburg / De Stijl, vol. 1, no. 2
Disagreement

Yet the two men were far from always seeing eye to eye. Over the course of 1918, their ideas increasingly diverged. Van der Leck took issue with the direction Mondrian was moving in; he believed Mondrian’s dark lines confined his colour fields and favoured a greater openness of form. For Mondrian, meanwhile, Van der Leck’s diagonal lines had no place in neo-plasticism, which permitted only horizontal and vertical lines.

Compositie met kleurvlakken en grijze lijnen 1
Piet Mondrian / Compositie met kleurvlakken en grijze lijnen 1 / 1918
Composition 1916 No. 4
© Bart van der Leck / Composition 1916 No. 4 / 1916
Parting ways

In June 1918 Mondrian wrote to Van Doesburg: “I am no longer speaking to [Van der Leck] about the work. Each of us is going his way; that is for the best. Fundamentally we have much in common, but according to him, we want different things. No matter. Time will tell what is best.” In December 1918, Van der Leck cancelled his subscription to De Stijl. While the artists continued to respect each other on a personal level, their artistic ideas had moved too far apart for them to remain friends.

Walk to Bart van der Leck’s house

Bart van der Leck’s house is part of our "The road to abstraction" route

12
On foot
6.5 km (4.04 miles)
120 min

The road to abstraction

Laren and Blaricum played a crucial role in Piet Mondrian’s development into an abstract artist. This walk traces that process by taking you past his studios and other important places.

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