Literature: Robert P. Welsh and Joop M. Joosten: “Piet Mondrian: Catalogue raisonné”, Harry N. Abrams, New York, 1998, p. 204, A121. Literature: Katjuscha Otte, Ingelies Vermeulen & Robert P. Welsh: “Piet Mondrian: Life and Work”, 2015, p. 55.

Provenance: The present owner's great-grandfather, Jan Coenraad Holtzappel (1868–1948) was a friend of the artist and thus commissioned a portrait of his two daughters. The girl on the right, Maria Johanna, was the present owner's grandmother.

The work is registered by RKD – The Netherlands Institute for Art History – as RKD 79451.

At the June auction we can present something as rare as an original work by one of art history's greatest names, Piet Mondrian. “Portret van de dochters van Jan Coenraad Holtzappel” (Portrait of the daughters of Jan Coenraad Holtzappel) was made around 1900–1901 and possibly as a preliminary study of the symbolist-inspired painting “Lente Idylle” from the same year. The work was commissioned by his friend Jan Coenraad Holtzappel (1868–1946) - or maybe Mondrian asked the girls to pose - and depicts his two young daughters, Alida and Maria, wearing fine sailor dresses. The girls are in an undefined interior; Alida sitting on a chair with an open book, and Maria standing by her side with a dreamy expression in her eyes directed towards a point to the right of the viewer. A large cushion made in clear blue, green and yellow material breaks the otherwise very muted palette and the room's flat, geometric structure. The expression is thus quite typical of Mondrian’s work from the period; a charming combination of observed sober realism and simplified form.

With the founding of De Stijl in 1917, Mondrian can be described as a pioneer within the abstract art movement, but before he made his iconic later works – where form and colour were liberated from the picture plane – he worked off a more classical Dutch tradition. Thus, like many other abstract artists, Mondrian – or Pieter Cornelis Mondriaan – began his artistic education by learning how to copy the natural world. He was born into a protestant family, and at a young age his father taught him to draw, while his uncle, a professional artist, taught him how to paint. Already as a 14-year-old, Mondrian was set on his future livelihood, to the great regret of his father, and at the age of 20, Mondrian enrolled at the Rijksacademie in Amsterdam, where he continued his education within the classical tradition. He became adept at copying the work of the masters, and when he graduated, he had become an expert in technical drawing.

The shift towards modernism began around 1908 and at the same time he shifted from Protestantism to Theosophy. After this, his work became more and more theoretical. He began to explore abstraction, and it was also at this time that he officially changed his name to Piet Mondrian. Mondrian spent the last four years of his life in New York, where the vibe of the big city inspired him to rethink his strict style and add a pulsating dynamic – inspired by the local music scene. At several levels then, there is quite a long journey between the young Mondrian and his quiet landscapes, still lifes and portraits to the jazz-loving creator of “Broadway Boogie-Woogie”. The portrait has since its creation been inherited by J.C.M. Veltema, born Maria Holtzappel, and thence through the family, who have now put it up for auction.