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 No. III, with Red, Blue, Yellow, and Black (1929) balances a large red area at upper left against three much smaller colour and black accents around its lower right. The black lines cross just left of and below the canvas centre, making four unequal regions. Within that deceptively simple arrangement, Mondrian changed the size and placement of each field until no side feels like a mirror of the other. This is the privately held canvas catalogued as RKD B213, the work that sold at Christie's in New York on 14 May 2015 for $50,565,000. The local image shows this same arrangement and is retained.[1][2][3]
At a glance
- ArtistPiet Mondrian (Piet Mondriaan, 1872–1944)
- TitleComposition No. III, with Red, Blue, Yellow, and Black; RKD short title Composition no. III
- Date1929; signed and dated “PM 29”
- MediumOil on canvas in the artist's painted frame
- Canvas size50 × 50.2 cm; Christie's records the frame as 61 × 61 cm
- Catalogue numberRKD B213
- Recorded locationPrivate collection
- Documented saleChristie's New York, 14 May 2015, lot 6, $50,565,000 including buyer's premium[1][2][3]
Composition No. III in Mondrian's 1929–30 sequence
Contents
- What does the composition show?
- Why is this particular No. III distinctive?
- How did Mondrian make the white fields active?
- Where was the painting first shown?
- Who owned it, and what happened at auction?
- Is it the same as other paintings called Composition No. III?
What does the composition show?
The painting is nearly square, and the first thing most viewers notice is the broad red rectangle across the upper left. A horizontal black line runs beneath it; a vertical line near its right side continues downward. Their intersection sits a little below and left of the centre. That placement matters: the four principal parts are related, but none is a perfect duplicate or reflection of another. The red field is neither a centred emblem nor one tile in a regular checkerboard.[2]
 The Red Tree Piet Mondrian.jpg)
Most of the canvas is white or off-white. The upper-right area opens into a large quiet plane, while the lower-left offers another expansive pale area. At lower right, a smaller white square is bordered by narrow subdivisions. A blue rectangle appears along its right-hand edge; a yellow band lies below; a compact black field completes the group. In the image, these small accents answer the much larger red without trying to match its area. The black is both a coloured plane and part of the structural vocabulary of the lines. This visual account concerns the pictured B213 canvas, not every Mondrian composition with the same primary colours.[2]
Look again at the edges. Some black bars end at a picture boundary; others stop where a smaller coloured or pale rectangle begins. The lines have weight and length, so they divide the canvas without becoming an even wire mesh. The painting's balance is an effect of unequal parts: a red mass high and left, smaller colour low and right, and white intervals that give each the space to act. A screen reproduction can reveal this organization, although it cannot accurately communicate the canvas's paint texture or the physical relation between the original canvas and its painted frame.
Why is this particular No. III distinctive?
Christie's 2015 catalogue places B213 at the beginning of a group of nine closely related paintings developed over roughly three years. Its account identifies an unusual detail: the lower-right square is accompanied by two small vertical rectangles at its side and two small horizontal ones below. In later variations Mondrian removed one short black line, leaving one open rectangle beneath the square. That makes the construction of this work more specific than a description such as “red, blue and yellow squares” can capture.[2]
The closest earlier comparison in the catalogue essay is a 1929 Composition now at the Guggenheim, RKD B206. In that work the principal crossing sits higher. In B213, Mondrian lowered it and established the four broad regions that would shape the following variants. The Guggenheim records its painting as oil on canvas in the artist's frame, accession 53.1347. Comparing the two clarifies an artistic decision rather than a generic style label: a slight relocation of the central axes changes how the red, white and small colour accents balance across the whole surface.[2][4]
A later member of the sequence, Composition No. II at Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam, is RKD B215. The museum gives its own canvas as 52 × 52 cm, accession 1542 (MK), and records its acquisition in 1929. It resembles B213 in overall method but has its own placement of yellow, blue, black and white. The work on this page remains B213: a privately held 50 × 50.2 cm canvas with the distinctive lower-right subdivisions. These details help keep a series of near relatives from collapsing into one supposed picture.[1][5]
How did Mondrian make the white fields active?
The open-looking areas are not simply blank background. Christie's cites a review by A. M. Hammacher of the painting's 1929–30 exhibition in The Hague. Hammacher noticed that the three pale areas varied in their surface and in the direction of visible brushwork. The observation is a useful corrective to a small digital image, where the whites may look identical. Mondrian's reduced vocabulary still depended on distinctions of painted surface, not only a diagram of rectangles.[2]
The original frame is part of that visual experience. Christie's describes the oil canvas as being in the artist's painted frame and gives separate measurements for canvas and frame. Its catalogue also records inscriptions on the stretcher and reverse of the frame, including “HAUT N: III,” indicating the top. The object therefore carries evidence about its title, orientation and presentation beyond the frontal image. An online crop may cut away most of that frame, so it should not lead readers to assume that the canvas alone was the complete presentation Mondrian intended.[2]
The painted whites, the black lines, the coloured rectangles and the surrounding frame work at different visual scales. From a distance the red dominates. Closer in, the small lower-right divisions slow the eye. Closer still, differences within the whites and the line edges become more apparent. That movement between a strong first impression and subtler corrections is one reason the work rewards sustained looking even though its ingredients are easy to name.
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 YouTubeWhere was the painting first shown?
The work entered public view quickly. Christie's lists it in Expositions Sélectes d'Art Contemporain at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam in October 1929, catalogue no. 52. It also appeared in the museum's Architectuur Schilderwerk Beeldhouwwerk exhibition in November–December that year, no. 3. The Expositions Sélectes presentation then reached the Pulchri Studio in The Hague in December 1929–January 1930. These records place the canvas within the abstract-art conversations of its own year rather than treating it only as a later auction object.[2]
The 2015 catalogue describes Nelly van Doesburg as the organizer of Expositions Sélectes and says Mondrian contributed four paintings. It identifies B213 as the one of those four that can be tied securely to the exhibition. The distinction is useful: a catalogue entry for “Composition No. III” can otherwise be confused with several numbered Mondrian paintings. Here the exhibition number, surviving painting and B213 catalogue identity align in Christie's documented account.[2]
The later exhibition history is substantial. Christie's lists a 1955 Mondrian show at Kunsthaus Zürich, a 1977 Delaunay–Mondrian exhibition at Galerie Beyeler, and the major 1994–96 retrospective that travelled from The Hague to Washington and New York. These were exhibitions of a privately owned object; a past museum appearance does not mean the painting now belongs to that museum or is currently on display. RKD's public catalogue lists B213 in a private collection.[2][1]
Who owned it, and what happened at auction?
Christie's provenance begins with Michel Seuphor, the Belgian writer and Mondrian's friend, to whom the artist gave the canvas around 1930. The recorded chain then passes through Alberto Sartoris in Geneva, Galerie d'Art Moderne in Basel, and Théodore Bally in Montreux. A European private collection acquired it from Bally in 1971; the painting was sold by that estate at Christie's New York on 14 May 1997, lot 9. A New York private collection bought it there, and the consignor for the 2015 sale had acquired it in 2009. Those steps are the documented provenance in the auction catalogue, not a claim to know every transfer after 2015.[2]
On 14 May 2015, Christie’s listed the painting as lot 6 in its New York Impressionist and Modern Art evening sale. Its results sheet gives an estimate of $15 million–$25 million and a realized price of $50,565,000, explicitly including the buyer's premium. Christie’s described it then as a world auction record for Mondrian. That is a historical statement about that sale; auction records may change. The old page's 2016 sale date was incorrect. The price does not explain the painting's artistic value by itself, but its documented sale is a notable event in this particular object's history.[3]
Is it the same as other paintings called Composition No. III?
No. Mondrian reused numbered composition titles, and later catalogues also vary the wording. RKD labels this private 1929 canvas B213, Composition no. III. On the same RKD page, B210 is another 1929 Composition no. III at Yale University Art Gallery. The title alone is therefore insufficient for identifying an image. The canvas size, red upper-left plane, lower-right accents, artist's frame, provenance and B213 number together identify the painting discussed here.[1][2]
It is also distinct from the site's Composition with Red, Yellow and Blue page, which treats the 1930 Zürich canvas B217, and from Composition II in Red, Blue and Yellow, the separate 1929 Belgrade B212. Similar colour words recur because Mondrian deliberately worked within a narrow visual language. The catalogue numbers and collections keep the works legible as individual objects.[1]
Mondrian artworks directory
Frequently asked questions
When was Composition No. III, with Red, Blue, Yellow, and Black painted?
How large is the canvas?
Christie's gives 50 × 50.2 cm for the oil canvas and 61 × 61 cm for the artist's painted frame.[2]
Where is the original?
When and for how much did it sell?
It sold at Christie's New York on 14 May 2015 for $50,565,000 including buyer's premium. Christie's published the painting as lot 6 of sale 3736.[3]
Is this the Guggenheim's 1929 Composition?
Discussion
How does the red upper-left field compare with the small colour planes at lower right?
Reader Insights
Follow the two main black axes to their crossing. Which white area changes your first impression?
Which of the blue, yellow or black accents most strongly counters the large red plane?
How does this B213 painting differ from the separately catalogued B212 Composition II in Belgrade?
Join the Conversation
Share what you notice in this painting below.
References
- RKD – Netherlands Institute for Art History, digital Mondrian catalogue raisonné, 1929–30 sequence, especially B213 and nearby B206, B210, B212 and B215. View source.
- Christie's, 2015 lot catalogue for Composition No. III, with Red, Blue, Yellow, and Black, with dimensions, inscriptions, provenance, exhibition history and catalogue essay. View source.
- Christie's Press Centre, results for Impressionist and Modern Art Evening Sale, New York, 14 May 2015, sale 3736, lot 6. View source.
- Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, collection record for Mondrian's separate 1929 Composition, accession 53.1347. View source.
- Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, collection record for the separate 1929 Composition No. II, accession 1542 (MK). View source.
- Lead image credit. Piet Mondrian, Composition No. III, with Red, Blue, Yellow, and Black, 1929, oil on canvas in the artist’s painted frame, 50 × 50.2 cm, RKD B213; private collection.
