Mondrian Portrait Homages

The figure in this watercolor has been identified with the Dutch writer Til Brugman and Noortje, the wife of Mondrian's artist friend Simon Maris, which, if either identification were correct, would argue for a relative[ly] late date for execution, since Brugman met Mondrian only c.1910 and Noortje arrived in Amsterdam only by 1906. Instead, it is possible to assign the date of execution to approximately the turn of the century, when Mondrian produced several watercolors of women in various states of spiritual enlightenment or distress. Distress seems a more likely emotional state in this case than enlightenment, although its exact cause remains open to various interpretations.

Everyone should have their picture, preferably drawn (but possibly photographed and interfered with) in that pose.