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 29, 2026
Email: tomgurney1@gmail.com / Phone: +44 7429 011000
About the painting
In Pointillist Dune Study, Crest at Left, the dune's upper edge rises toward the left side of the picture. Dense short strokes make the sky cool blue-violet and the sand a changing field of yellow, orange, blue and pale cream. Piet Mondrian made this small work in 1909 while studying the Zeeland coast. RKD identifies it as A703 and records a Tokyo collection then called the Bridgestone Museum of Art. Christie’s original 1998 lot record independently cites A703 and describes the medium more precisely as oil with traces of graphite on paper laid down on composition board, 30 × 39.4 cm. It is one of three separately catalogued pointillist dune studies whose crests lie at centre, left and right.[1][2]
At a glance
- ArtistPiet Mondrian (Piet Mondriaan, 1872–1944)
- TitlePointillist Dune Study, Crest at Left
- Date1909
- Catalogue numberRKD / Joosten A703
- MediumOil with traces of graphite on paper laid down on composition board in Christie’s object record
- Dimensions30 × 39.4 cm in the Christie’s 1998 lot record
- CollectionRKD lists Tokyo's former Bridgestone Museum of Art; Artizon Museum is the present institutional name, though its short online Dune listing alone is not enough to reconfirm the A703 crosswalk
- Nearby worksA702 places the dune crest at centre; A704 places it at right[1][2][3]
Three pointillist dune studies of 1909
Contents
- What does the left-crest study show?
- How was Mondrian's pointillist surface made?
- Why did Mondrian work on dunes in 1909?
- How is A703 different from the other dune studies?
- What is known about provenance and display?
What does the left-crest study show?
The upper band is a mosaic of cool blues, greens and purples. Below it, the dune takes over most of the image. The crest rises slightly higher on the left and then settles toward the right. Warm orange and yellow strokes mingle with pale and blue marks through the sand. A stronger reddish and brownish line crosses the lower middle before the foreground lightens again. The eye sees a dune and sky, but it also sees the individual marks from which Mondrian built them.
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The composition is not a smooth landscape with a distant vanishing point. The high horizon pushes the viewer close to the dune surface. The sand becomes an active pattern of short touches rather than a single beige mass. The sky is just as varied. The two zones are separated by a clear curving boundary, yet colour moves across them: cooler notes appear in the sand, warmer glints break up the dune, and the eye keeps shifting between individual strokes and the broad shape of the slope.
Christie’s catalogue essay describes the horizon and dune contour as high in the small series, drawing attention to dappled sunlight in hollows and slopes rendered by short, staccato pointillist strokes. That reading fits the visible A703 image. The title's “crest at left” is a practical identifier for the position of the dune's top edge; it should not be treated as a symbolic title invented by Mondrian to convey a separate doctrine.[2]
How was Mondrian's pointillist surface made?
The Christie’s object record gives an important material distinction: oil and traces of graphite on paper, later laid down on composition board. This is not simply an oil canvas. Graphite indicates drawing traces in the object, while the paper support and board backing describe its physical structure. The lower-left signature is recorded as “P. MONDRIAAN.” These details come from the original lot entry, which cites the Welsh catalogue raisonné A703, not from speculation about a small web image.[2]
“Pointillist” here refers to the work's many discrete touches of colour. They are not perfectly uniform dots. Some are short dashes, some are broader patches, and their density changes across the surface. The technique allows the dune to register both as a single mass and as a field of shifting light. At the scale of the original—only 30 × 39.4 cm—this required careful control of small marks. A 400-pixel website image is enough to see the overall pattern, but it cannot establish every physical layer or drawn trace.
The Artizon Museum's general collection description of a 1909 Dune says Mondrian explored layers from land to sky, changing shapes, brushstroke density and colour while working on the Domburg coast. That description usefully frames the exploration, but its short English label does not include A703. For exact support and dimensions on this page, the Christie’s A703 lot is the firmer source.[3][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 YouTubeWhy did Mondrian work on dunes in 1909?
RKD places A703 in the Zeeland section of Mondrian's oeuvre, among works of sea, beach, piers and dunes dated 1909–11. The sequence includes A700, a view from the dunes to the beach and piers at Domburg, and A701, a dune sketch in bright stripes. This context establishes that the subject was part of a sustained coastal investigation rather than an isolated experiment in coloured marks.[1]
Christie’s places this pointillist picture within a small group painted in Zeeland between about 1908 and 1910. The catalogue calls attention to the high dune line and flickering light. That makes the case for studying it as a response to a specific landscape, even as Mondrian's paint gives that landscape a highly organised colour surface. The work has not ceased to be about sand and sky; it asks what those forms can become when light is broken into separate strokes.[2]
It would be too easy to say that every short mark in A703 “leads directly” to a line in the abstract works of the 1920s. The 1909 painting has a horizon, local colour effects and irregular touches. Its value lies in showing Mondrian testing the expressive capacity of a natural motif at that moment, while the later grid paintings pursue different visual and theoretical questions.
How is A703 different from the other dune studies?
RKD labels A702 “crest at center” and connects it to Kunstmuseum Den Haag 0334293. The museum calls that work Duin III and records oil on cardboard, 29.5 × 39 cm. Its pale central hump sits beneath a deep blue sky. A704, also in the Hague museum, is “crest at right,” object 0334292 or Duin II, an oil canvas of 37.5 × 46.5 cm. Its dune climbs most strongly on the right. A703 has its own left-weighted crest and the paper-and-graphite support recorded by Christie’s.[1][4][5][2]
The three images use similar granular colour, but the crest location changes the direction of visual movement. In A702 the dune swells toward the middle; in A703 it lifts to the left; in A704 it rises on the right. These are useful viewing labels for separate works, not three crops of one large picture. Their catalogue numbers and museum or auction records make that separation verifiable.[1]
What is known about provenance and display?
Christie’s 1998 lot entry traces A703 through S. B. Slijper around 1919, Dr and Mrs Norman Laskey in New York, Sidney Janis Gallery from 1960 to 1962, and a buyer who acquired it from that gallery in 1962. The auction record also lists exhibitions from Amsterdam in 1922 to New York and other American cities through the 1970s. Those facts demonstrate the work's exhibition history but do not prove continuous public display.[2]
RKD's current digital entry lists the Bridgestone Museum of Art in Tokyo, an institution now known as the Artizon Museum. Its public Artizon page for a 1909 Dune supplies general context but lacks the catalogue number. The article therefore follows RKD for the listed collection identity while avoiding an unsupported claim about a specific room, exhibition or accession at Artizon today.[1][3]
Mondrian artworks directory
Frequently asked questions
Is it oil on canvas?
Christie’s describes oil with traces of graphite on paper laid down on composition board, not a canvas.[2]
How large is A703?
The original Christie’s lot gives 30 × 39.4 cm.[2]
Is it the same as Duin II or Duin III?
Discussion
How does the higher left edge guide your eye?
Reader Insights
Where are the warm and cool strokes densest?
How does this paper study differ from the Hague cardboard and canvas dunes?
How does this paper study differ from the Hague cardboard and canvas dunes?
Join the Conversation
Share what you notice in this painting below.
References
- RKD – Netherlands Institute for Art History, Mondrian catalogue, Zeeland seascapes A693–A710, including A702, A703 and A704. View source.
- Christie’s, original 1998 lot record for Pointillist Dune Study, Crest at Left, citing catalogue A703, material, dimensions, provenance, exhibitions and interpretation. View source.
- Artizon Museum, current museum name and general record for a 1909 Mondrian Dune work; its short label does not itself identify A703. View source.
- Kunstmuseum Den Haag, official record for separate Duin III, 0334293 / A702. View source.
- Kunstmuseum Den Haag, official record for separate Duin II, 0334292 / A704. View source.
- Lead image credit. Piet Mondrian, Pointillist Dune Study, Crest at Left, 1909, oil with graphite traces on paper laid on composition board, 30 × 39.4 cm in Christie’s record, RKD A703.
