Truncated View of the Broekzijder Mill on the Gein Wings Facing West

Mondrian's 'Truncated View of the Broekzijder Mill on the Gein, Wings Facing West' (1902) is one of several paintings he made of Dutch windmills at the turn of the century, before his radical turn toward abstraction. The Gein river mills were popular subjects in the Dutch landscape tradition, and Mondrian's treatment — deliberately truncated, with the mill cut by the canvas edge — reveals his emerging interest in formal arrangement over topographic completeness. The Museum of Modern Art's acquisition reflects the importance of these early landscape works for understanding how Mondrian's eventual abstractions grew from sustained engagement with the Dutch landscape rather than from purely theoretical premises.

The truncated framing is the painting's most striking formal decision, the mill's body cut by the edge in a manner that creates abstract compositional interest at the expense of conventional picturesque completeness. Mondrian applies paint with a tonal realism indebted to the Hague School, using subdued greens, browns, and blues to capture the damp quality of Dutch riverside landscape.