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
Two red fields stack in the upper left of a square composition. A wide, almost white centre is bordered by black bars; a narrow yellow strip stands at the right edge, and a short blue strip runs near the bottom. The painting shown on this page is Piet Mondrian's Composition with Red, Yellow, and Blue of 1927, RKD B188, in The Cleveland Museum of Art as 1967.215. The shortened title ‘Red, Yellow and Blue’ here refers to this precise work. It is not the different 1930 Zürich B217 painting whose large red plane fills most of the upper right.[1][2][3]
At a glance
- ArtistPiet Mondrian (Piet Mondriaan, 1872–1944)
- Museum titleComposition with Red, Yellow, and Blue
- Date1927
- Catalogue numberRKD B188
- MediumOil on canvas
- Unframed dimensions49.5 × 49.5 cm
- Framed dimensions62.2 × 62.6 × 10.8 cm
- CollectionThe Cleveland Museum of Art, Contemporary Collection
- Accession1967.215
- DisplayThe museum listed gallery 223, “20th Century Avant-Garde,” when checked; displays may change[1][2]
Distinct red, yellow and blue compositions
Contents
- What does the Cleveland composition show?
- Why is the white area so large?
- What is distinctive about the original frame?
- How does this work differ from the famous 1930 composition?
- Where is the original and can it be reused?
What does the Cleveland composition show?
The largest area is an open light field in the middle of the canvas. Its breadth is striking because the red, yellow and blue occupy comparatively small zones. At upper left are two separate red rectangles divided by a black horizontal. Yellow appears as a very thin vertical band on the right. Blue is a low horizontal accent near the bottom, ending before the right edge. Black lines make the divisions visible, but they are not a uniform grid of equal squares. Some lines stop at another bar or at the edge; their varying lengths produce distinct fields.[1]
 The Red Tree Piet Mondrian.jpg)
The central pale field gives the eye room to move. One may enter through the two reds, then cross the broad white area to the thin yellow, or travel down the left black bar to the low blue. Each colour has a different shape and position. Red is compact and doubled, blue is horizontal and low, yellow is narrow and vertical. Mondrian achieves balance through unequal elements rather than by mirroring one side of the square against the other.
The black lines themselves deserve a slow look. One heavy horizontal runs under the upper area; another divides the two red squares. A vertical beside the red fields frames the central space, and the line around that space almost makes it an independent rectangle. The lower blue and right yellow press toward the edges. These visual relationships help identify B188 when image results list many similarly titled Mondrian works.
Why is the white area so large?
White is not a passive leftover between colour patches. In B188 it is the composition's dominant visible area. It sets the scale of the smaller coloured accents and holds the black bars apart. The large centre can feel calm at first, but its boundaries are asymmetric: the reds sit at upper left, yellow hugs the right, and blue interrupts the bottom. The white's effect depends on those unequal neighbours.
The Cleveland Museum explains Mondrian's mature method as a limited visual language of horizontal and vertical rectangles, three primary colours, black and white. It links his abstraction to a search for harmony and a universal language after the First World War. This helps place B188 within his late-1920s practice. It should not flatten the particular painting into a diagram, however. Here the exact widths of the yellow and blue passages, and the paired reds, distinguish the object from other works made with the same restricted means.[1]
The large pale centre also means the painting can be misunderstood when reproduced as a small icon. At that scale, it may look like a generic Mondrian grid with coloured corners. On the original 49.5 cm square canvas, its white fields, black bars and painted frame have physical proportions. The museum's open-access image and object description allow a closer check than a small print or heavily cropped search thumbnail.[1]
Watch: Piet Mondrian
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Piet Mondrian: Abstract Painting as We Know It
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Watch on YouTubeWhat is distinctive about the original frame?
The Cleveland Museum records a small strip of wood around the outside of the canvas, painted the same grey as the painting's surface, as Mondrian's original frame. That detail matters because images sometimes crop to the coloured composition and lose the transition between canvas and surrounding wall. The frame is part of how this original was presented, not merely a later decorative surround chosen by a collector.[1]
The museum separately measures the unframed painting at 49.5 × 49.5 cm and the framed work at 62.2 × 62.6 × 10.8 cm. A reproduction's white border should not be mistaken for the canvas measurement. The square composition's centre, two upper-left reds, bottom blue and right yellow match the Cleveland museum's detailed visual description and the RKD B188 catalogue entry.[1][2]
The frame also reveals that Mondrian considered the edge of the work. His lines and coloured areas reach or stop at boundaries in particular ways. A narrow grey painted strip changes how the final black and yellow passages meet the environment beyond the canvas. There is no need to invent a hidden symbolic meaning for each interval; the museum's documented original frame is already a concrete point for viewing.
How does this work differ from the famous 1930 composition?
The Composition with Red, Blue and Yellow painting covers RKD B217, painted in 1930 and in Kunsthaus Zürich. Its image has a dominant red rectangle across the upper right, with blue at lower left and a small yellow accent at lower right. The Cleveland B188 image instead has two small red squares at upper left, a broad white centre, yellow along the right edge and blue near the bottom. They are separate paintings in different museums, made three years apart.[1][2][3]
Even within 1927, RKD lists multiple works with titles containing red, yellow and blue. B187 is recorded in a private collection and B191 at the Kröller-Müller Museum. A title phrase by itself is therefore insufficient to identify a Mondrian painting. For this route, the Cleveland accession 1967.215 and the paired-red visual pattern establish B188.[2]
A labelled print formerly shown under “Red Blue Yellow Composition” reproduces the Zürich B217 arrangement with printed text beneath it. The poster is a reproduction of another original, not a third painting called B188. Directing readers to the two museum objects helps them avoid confusing a commercial print's border and caption with Mondrian's actual canvas.[3]
Where is the original and can it be reused?
The original B188 belongs to The Cleveland Museum of Art, accession 1967.215, in its Contemporary Collection. The museum's online object page listed it in gallery 223 when checked. Gallery locations change, so consult the current object page before visiting for this particular canvas. A Smithsonian exhibition record also identifies the Cleveland work as a loan, confirming that its appearance elsewhere did not change its museum ownership.[1][4]
The Cleveland Museum explicitly marks this work under its Open Access initiative: its object page says the image can be copied, modified and distributed without permission. A replacement or larger image could therefore be sourced from the museum if needed. The museum's image can be viewed directly beside a reproduction for confirmation of the distinctive two-red pattern.[1]
Mondrian artworks directory
Frequently asked questions
Which Mondrian painting is on this page?
How large is it?
The canvas measures 49.5 × 49.5 cm unframed. Cleveland lists the framed dimensions separately as 62.2 × 62.6 × 10.8 cm.[1]
Is it the 1930 Composition with Red, Blue and Yellow?
Is the grey outer strip original?
The Cleveland Museum says the painted wooden strip around its canvas is Mondrian's original frame.[1]
Discussion
How do the paired reds balance the white centre?
Reader Insights
What role do the thin yellow and blue fields play?
How does Cleveland B188 differ from Zürich B217?
How does Cleveland B188 differ from Zürich B217?
Join the Conversation
Share what you notice in this painting below.
References
- The Cleveland Museum of Art, official object record for Composition with Red, Yellow, and Blue, 1927, 1967.215: medium, size, original frame, display and Open Access terms. View source.
- RKD – Netherlands Institute for Art History, Mondrian catalogue, 1927–28, identifying Cleveland 1967.215 as B188 and distinguishing B187/B191. View source.
- RKD – Netherlands Institute for Art History, 1929–30 catalogue entry B217 for the separate Zürich painting. View source.
- Smithsonian Institution, Cooper Hewitt, exhibition record for the Cleveland 1967.215 loan. View source.
- Lead image credit. Piet Mondrian, Composition with Red, Yellow, and Blue, 1927, oil on canvas, 49.5 × 49.5 cm unframed, The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1967.215, RKD B188.
