 Piet Mondrian.jpg)
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
Piet Mondrian turns his body to the side and looks back at the viewer in this 1918 self-portrait. Behind his dark jacket and sharply modelled face are pale, rectangular divisions. The contrast is striking: the painting gives us a recognisable person at a moment when Mondrian was also developing an increasingly abstract art. This canvas is in Kunstmuseum Den Haag, object 0334324, catalogue C23. Its subject, date, size and collection distinguish it from the close frontal self-portrait of about 1900 in Washington.[1][2][3]
At a glance
Two painted self-portraits
Contents
- What does Mondrian show in the 1918 portrait?
- Why is this portrait unusual in 1918?
- What is known about the canvas and its later history?
- How does it compare with the c. 1900 self-portrait?
What does Mondrian show in the 1918 portrait?
The painter's torso turns away from us, while his head rotates back. The nose and brow are strongly outlined in profile, but the visible eye seems to reconnect the figure with the viewer. A white shirt collar, dark bow tie and brown jacket give the picture the look of a formal portrait. No brush, palette or canvas appears to identify him as an artist. The pose itself carries much of the image's tension.
 The Red Tree Piet Mondrian.jpg)
The head is built with warm brown and grey planes. Light catches the forehead and cheek, while darker paint defines the eye socket and the line of the nose. The short hair is drawn back close to the skull. The broad dark jacket below makes the face more conspicuous. Looking at the actual arrangement, rather than only the title, helps distinguish this self-portrait from countless photographs and from Mondrian's earlier painting of himself.
The setting is equally important. Behind the figure, pale rectangles and short horizontal and vertical divisions suggest an interior wall or arranged panels. Research by The Mondrian Papers locates the painting in a small studio hut between Laren and Blaricum. It identifies wooden panelling up to shoulder height and, above that, cardboard rectangles apparently pinned to the wall. Those visible studio elements make the geometric background more specific than a generic allusion to later grids; they also echo the free colour rectangles of Mondrian's 1917 abstract work.[6]
Why is this portrait unusual in 1918?
By 1918 Mondrian was deeply involved in abstraction and the emerging De Stijl movement. The Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen's Mondrian exhibition explains that his main focus in these years was reducing colour and form, while he also returned to some recognisable Dutch subjects, including commissioned paintings. The self-portrait belongs to that coexistence of different kinds of work. It is a figurative painting from a period of abstract experiment, rather than evidence that he had abandoned one approach for the other.[2]
The backdrop makes the coexistence visible in the picture itself. Rectangular patches, lines and pale tonal changes surround a carefully observed face. They can encourage a comparison with Mondrian's abstract compositions, but the portrait still asks us to see an individual man with specific features and dress. Its painted surface does not provide a diagram of his theory. The most secure statement is the visual one: representation and ordered geometry share the canvas.
Kunstsammlung NRW places the 1918 portrait in the context of Mondrian's friendship with Salomon Bernard Slijper, a supporter he met in Laren during the First World War. The museum's own object record credits the portrait as a Slijper bequest. A later study of Mondrian's letters establishes a more precise and surprising route into that collection: Slijper did not commission or acquire this painted self-portrait in 1918, as older accounts had proposed. Mondrian kept it, brought it to Paris in 1919, and arranged for Slijper to buy it through their mutual friend Simon Maris in August 1920.[1][2][6]
The letters also separate this canvas from Mondrian's 1916 charcoal self-portrait. He had offered that drawing to Slijper in exchange for a suit; the drawing, not the later oil painting, was in Slijper's hands in 1916. The painted portrait remained important enough for Mondrian to take it back to Paris, where financial pressure eventually led to its sale. The documented payment through Maris was 500 francs. This sequence corrects a provenance story that had treated both self-portraits as early Slijper commissions.[6]
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Watch on YouTubeWhat is known about the canvas and its later history?
Kunstmuseum Den Haag gives the size as 88 cm high and 71 cm wide and the material as oil on canvas. Its object number is 0334324. These particulars matter because an image at phone size can make it look as small as the earlier portrait. In reality, the 1918 canvas is substantially larger than the c. 1900 Washington work.[1][3]
The painting is catalogued as C23 in Mondrian scholarship. A public catalogue note for Mondrian's correspondence identifies the 1918 painted self-portrait as C23 and discusses its later appearance in Slijper's possession. The museum record is the firmer source for present collection, size and medium; the catalogue number helps connect the portrait to scholarship and distinguish it from other self-images.[1][4]
The hut research gives the background a physical setting, while the painting still transforms what Mondrian saw. His jacket is bulky and dark; the wall behind him is flat, light and segmented. Their encounter is the picture's visual drama. The pinned rectangles explain the abstract appearance without turning the portrait into a mechanically literal record of the hut.[6]
How does it compare with the c. 1900 self-portrait?
The earlier self-portrait in The Phillips Collection is catalogue A138, dated about 1900. It is a near-frontal view of a young man with a moustache and short beard against a deep brown ground. The face is close, and the shirt and waistcoat are handled more loosely than the features. The 1918 canvas instead uses a turning pose, dark formal jacket and pale divided setting. The two images cannot be exchanged merely because both are titled Self-Portrait.[3][5]
Their collections and measurements also differ. The Phillips lists its c. 1900 canvas as 50.8 × 39.37 cm, acquired in 1958; the Hague museum lists the 1918 canvas at 88 × 71 cm and credits Slijper's bequest. Comparing their actual sizes as well as their reproduced images reveals how differently Mondrian framed his own presence at these two dates.[1][5]
Mondrian artworks directory
Frequently asked questions
Where is the 1918 self-portrait?
It belongs to Kunstmuseum Den Haag in the Netherlands, object 0334324, through the bequest of Salomon B. Slijper.[1]
How large is it?
The museum records an oil canvas measuring 88 × 71 cm.[1]
Is the background a Mondrian abstract painting?
The pale rectangles belong to the painted studio setting. The Mondrian Papers identifies cardboard rectangles pinned above wooden panelling in the hut where he painted it; they are not a separate canvas mounted behind him.[6]
Is this his only self-portrait?
Discussion
How does the turning pose guide the gaze?
Reader Insights
What is the effect of the pale rectangular backdrop?
How does it differ from the c. 1900 Phillips portrait?
How does it differ from the c. 1900 Phillips portrait?
Join the Conversation
Share what you notice in this painting below.
References
- Kunstmuseum Den Haag, official Self-portrait object record, 1918, 0334324: size, medium and Slijper bequest. View source.
- Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Mondrian. Evolution digital exhibition, 1914–20 section: De Stijl context, Slijper and the 1918 portrait. View source.
- RKD – Netherlands Institute for Art History, Mondrian catalogue, Amsterdam figures A112–A145, listing the earlier Phillips portrait as A138. View source.
- Singel Uitgeverijen, published source notes for Mondrian biography, identifying the 1918 painted self-portrait as catalogue C23 and its Slijper connection. View source.
- The Phillips Collection, official record for the separate c. 1900 Self-Portrait, object 1375. View source.
- The Mondrian Papers, Wietse Coppes, “The artist’s letters to correct scholarly interpretation: the provenance of two self-portraits by Mondrian” (2021), identifying the hut setting and the 1920 sale through Simon Maris. View source.
- Lead image credit. Piet Mondrian, Self-Portrait, 1918, oil on canvas, 88 × 71 cm, Kunstmuseum Den Haag, 0334324, catalogue C23.
