by Tom Gurney
Tom Gurney BSc (Hons) is an art history expert with over 20 years experience
Published on June 19, 2020 / Updated on September 28, 2026
Email: tomgurney1@gmail.com / Phone: +44 7429 011000
About the painting
Piet Mondrian's Composition C (No.III) with Red, Yellow and Blue puts three coloured areas into a nearly square network of black lines and whites. Red fills the upper-left corner; a narrow yellow strip stands at the lower left; blue sits near the lower centre. The intervals between them are as important as the colours themselves. Tate dates the oil-on-canvas painting to 1935, gives its size as 56 × 55.2 cm, and credits it as lent from a private collection since 1981. RKD catalogues this work as B261 and records Tate loan number L 00097.[1][2]
The identifying details matter because Mondrian made other paintings called Composition C. In particular, the Museum of Modern Art owns a 1920 work of that short title, RKD B107, object 257.1948. The image on this page, with red above yellow and blue in its lower row, matches Tate's 1935 B261 rather than MoMA's earlier painting. The two works should not share a date, collection credit or description merely because their short titles coincide.[1][2][3]
At a glance
- ArtistPiet Mondrian (Piet Mondriaan, 1872–1944)
- Tate titleComposition C (No.III) with Red, Yellow and Blue
- RKD title and numberComposition C (no. III), B261
- Date1935
- MediumOil on canvas
- Dimensions56 × 55.2 cm, according to Tate's original-work credit
- Ownership and loanPrivate collection; lent to Tate in 1981, Tate loan L 00097[1][2]
The 1935 private collection loan in Mondrian's abstract years
Contents
- What is in the composition?
- How do red, yellow and blue balance the white fields?
- When and where was it made?
- What is its connection with the 1936 exhibition?
- Is this MoMA's 1920 Composition C?
- Where is the painting now?
What is in the composition?
The canvas is close to square, but its coloured fields are not evenly scattered. A large red rectangle anchors the upper left. It meets the top and left edges; a black vertical marks its right side, and a black horizontal runs beneath it. The upper-right field remains white. Immediately below that first horizontal, a broad, shallow white band extends across the composition and postpones the other colours.
A second strong horizontal cuts across the lower half. Beneath it, a thin yellow field touches the left edge, while a blue rectangle occupies a larger space nearer the centre. A black vertical separates blue from the white field to its right. The blue stops above the bottom edge, leaving a small white strip below. On the left, yellow continues to the lower edge. These unequal endings make the lower section more intricate than an instant glance at the grid may suggest.
The black lines do not merely outline coloured blocks. Some run across long stretches of the canvas; others form short boundaries between one lower field and another. Their crossings determine the white areas too. The narrow white band between the two main horizontal lines differs from the broad upper-right white region and from the lower white fields. Looking at those white spaces as separate shapes makes the painting less like a standard checkerboard.
The three colours also carry different visual weight. Red is broad and high; yellow is narrow and low; blue is compact but deep in tone. None repeats symmetrically on the opposite side. The canvas therefore holds the eye through unequal sizes, distances and line endings. This is a description of what is visible, not evidence for a precise mathematical scheme: the cited collection records do not assign a numerical proportion or hidden formula to the painting.
How do red, yellow and blue balance the white fields?
The large red corner may attract the first look, yet the painting does not depend on red alone. Yellow interrupts the black lower horizontal at the left edge, while blue gives the lower centre a darker coloured mass. Between these accents, white takes up most of the surface. It is active space rather than a neutral remainder: the sizes of the white fields control the distance the eye travels from one colour to another.
Following the long horizontal beneath the red area leads into the white upper-right region. Following the next horizontal brings the eye toward yellow and blue. A vertical below the upper red boundary passes into the lower arrangement, but the fields on either side of it change as it descends. These paths create a measured movement around the canvas without depicting a landscape, building or figure.
The red, yellow and blue are often used as shorthand for Mondrian's mature style. Here their placement is more specific than that familiar summary. Red is larger than either of the other colours; yellow has the least width; blue is the only colour enclosed within the lower arrangement rather than reaching the top. The black and white structure is therefore essential to the particular result. A reproduction can convey the layout, but it may make the canvas seem flatter and more uniform than the painted original.
Sotheby's catalogue essay describes visible brushwork and subtle differences among the whites on the physical canvas. Those are close-looking observations from that source. The small image reproduced here is enough to follow the geometry and colour placement, but it should not be used to make claims about minute paint texture or condition that it cannot show.[4]
When and where was it made?
Both Tate and RKD give 1935 as the date. Sotheby's says Mondrian painted it in Paris, where he was living during this stage of his abstract career. RKD groups B261 with his Paris works of 1935–37, alongside other lettered and numbered compositions. That grouping helps explain the title: “C” and “No.III” identify a work within a changing sequence, but do not by themselves describe its appearance or guarantee that it is the only Mondrian Composition C.[1][2][4]
An earlier page in this group, Composition with Red, Blue and Yellow, concerns the 1930 Zürich work RKD B217. Its title names the same three primary colours, but its layout, date and collection are different. The nearby Composition B (No.II) with Red is 1935 RKD B254, held by Tate as T07560; it gives a single red area a role that red, yellow and blue share here. These comparisons show how Mondrian could continue changing the positions and proportions of a limited vocabulary rather than producing interchangeable grids.[2]
Watch: Piet Mondrian
See his studio, the move toward geometric abstraction and the rhythms of his New York paintings.
Piet Mondrian: Abstract Painting as We Know It
Curator Michael White explores the paintings and Mondrian’s studio as an abstract space.
Watch on YouTubeWhat is its connection with the 1936 exhibition?
Tate's description says Mondrian showed this and other works in the 1936 Abstract and Concrete exhibition. Sotheby's places this particular painting at the exhibition in Oxford. Tate's short introduction discusses London as a centre for abstract art around the time Mondrian arrived there in 1938, but that broader context should not be mistaken for the venue of this painting's 1936 showing. Sotheby's also says Nicolette Gray purchased the work after the exhibition and describes her as an early English collector of Mondrian.[1][4]
This history puts the painting before Mondrian's move to London. It was made in Paris, shown to a British audience in 1936, and later reached Tate as a loan. The record does not support saying that the work was painted in London or that Tate acquired ownership of it. Those distinctions are especially useful because Tate's display and print pages can make a loaned picture look like a permanent collection object at a glance.
Is this MoMA's 1920 Composition C?
No. MoMA's collection record dates its Composition C to 1920, gives the oil-on-canvas painting as 60.3 × 61 cm, and identifies it as object 257.1948. MoMA's provenance text explicitly cites catalogue number B107. The painting on this page is 1935 B261, 56 × 55.2 cm, and recorded as a private collection loan to Tate. The two object numbers and the visibly different arrangements settle the naming problem.[3][1][2]
The same caution applies to lettered titles elsewhere. The site's Composition A shows the Rome painting B105, dated 1919–20 by its museum, whereas RKD also lists a separate 1935 Composition A, B253, beside B261. A useful comparison keeps the year and collection next to the title instead of treating a repeated letter as an object identity.[2]
Where is the painting now?
Tate's credit reads “Lent from private collection 1981”, and RKD lists Tate loan L 00097. That supports describing the painting as associated with Tate through a long-term loan, with private ownership. It does not prove that the painting is on view on any particular day. Anyone planning a visit should check Tate's current gallery information rather than assume that a loaned work is always displayed.[1][2]
The loan credit also sets this work apart from Tate's T07560 Composition B (No.II) with Red. Both are dated 1935 and can be discussed as neighbouring experiments, but their collection records differ. B254 is a Tate acquisition; B261 is identified by Tate and RKD as a private collection loan. The distinction belongs in the artwork facts as well as in its history.
Mondrian artworks directory
Frequently asked questions
When did Mondrian paint Composition C (No.III) with Red, Yellow and Blue?
What material and size is the original painting?
Tate credits the original as oil on canvas, 56 × 55.2 cm.[1]
Does Tate own Composition C?
Is this the Composition C at MoMA?
Was the painting shown in Abstract and Concrete?
Discussion
Does the red corner or the lower blue field first hold your attention?
Reader Insights
Follow the black verticals from the red area toward the yellow and blue. Where does your eye stop?
Which white area best separates red, yellow and blue after a second look?
How does this 1935 B261 Tate loan differ from MoMA’s separate 1920 B107 Composition C?
Join the Conversation
Share what you notice in this painting below.
References
- Tate, Composition C (No.III) with Red, Yellow and Blue, artwork print page with original-work credit and 1936 exhibition note. View source.
- RKD – Netherlands Institute for Art History, Mondrian catalogue raisonné, Paris 1935–37, B261 and adjacent works. View source.
- Museum of Modern Art, Composition C, 1920, object 257.1948 and B107 catalogue identification in provenance. View source.
- Sotheby's, Composition C (No.III) with Red, Yellow and Blue, 1935, Tate catalogue essay with Paris, Oxford, Nicolette Gray and close-looking context. View source.
- Lead image credit. Piet Mondrian, Composition C (No.III) with Red, Yellow and Blue, 1935, oil on canvas, RKD B261; private collection loan to Tate, L 00097.
 The Red Tree Piet Mondrian.jpg)
