Brown and white ox steer

Brown and White Ox Steer (1904), at the Kunstmuseum Den Haag, continues Mondrian's systematic study of working cattle in the Brabant countryside. An ox steer—a castrated male used for draft work—was a specific category of working animal distinguishable from the heifers and calves he also painted, typically larger and more powerful in form. The Brabant countryside in the early 1900s still relied on ox-powered agriculture to a significant degree, and Mondrian's documentation of these animals constitutes a record of traditional agricultural practice alongside a formal painting exercise in careful animal observation.

The larger, more powerful form of the ox steer presents different compositional challenges from the more delicate heifer subjects. Mondrian renders the animal's solid, muscular mass with attention to its weight and presence, the strong brown-and-white markings defining its three-dimensional form against the landscape setting.