Church Façade

Prints and Drawings

n.d.

Piet Mondrian, imitator of
Dutch, 1872-1944

The title, date and author of this drawing are all open to question. In 1969, the scholar Robert P. Welsh suggested that this sheet was linked to a series of compositions Mondrian made around 1914, based on the facade of a church in the town of Domburg, the Netherlands. This drawing has appeared in an exhibition at The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in 1971, and was previously in the collections of artists Yves Tanguy (1900-1955) and Leon Kelly (born 1901). Nevertheless, 20th-century art-including works by Modigliani and Matisse, for example-has been a popular target of forgers, and Mondrian’s authorship of this drawing will continue to be the subject of disagreement.

Status: Currently Off View
Department: Prints and Drawings

Artist: Piet Mondrian
Title: Church Façade
Place: Netherlands (Artist's nationality:)
Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.: 1914
Medium: Charcoal, with erasing, on off-white laid paper
Inscriptions: Signed, lower left: P.M.
Dimensions: 63.3 × 48.3 cm (24 15/16 × 19 1/16 in.)
Credit Line: Grant J. Pick Fund
Reference Number: 1968.15
Copyright: © Mondrian/Holtzman Trust c/o HCR International, Warrenton VA

John Maxon, The Art Institute of Chicago (London, 1970), pp. 168-169 (ill.).
O. Lenghi, L’Opera Completa di Mondrian (Milan, 1974), no. 242.

New York, The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, “Piet Mondrian,” October 7-December 12, 1971, cat. 63; traveled to the Kunstmuseum in Bern, February 9-April 9, 1972.
The Art Institute of Chicago, “Twentieth Century Collection Reinstalled,” June 7, 1991-February 28, 1992 (installation).

Yves Tanguy (died 1955), Connecticut [according to New York 1972 exh. cat.]. Leon Kelly (born 1901), New Jersey [according to New York 1972 exh. cat.]. Sold by Richard Feigen Gallery, Chicago, to the Art Institute, 1968.

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Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

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