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
A dark mill rises above a bridge and water, while broad bands of mauve, blue and yellow sweep across the sky. Mondrian's Stammer Mill with Streaked Sky is RKD A400, made 1905–07. It is now The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art 2016.1 in Kansas City. The RKD's shorter online catalogue still lists an older private collection, but the collecting museum documents its 2016 purchase and supplies the present object record. This update is important: the painting is no longer best described simply as privately held.[1][2]
At a glance
Mondrian across periods
Contents
- What is in the picture?
- Which mill is it?
- How did it reach Kansas City?
- A working place, not just a silhouette
- Where to begin looking
What is in the picture?
The Stammer mill stands slightly right of centre. Its dark upright body and sails are set against long horizontal sky bands. To the left is a low red-roofed cottage. A narrow bridge crosses the middle distance and is reflected in the water below. The museum's detailed description also identifies a red boat and a woman with a black-and-white cow on the bridge. These small details are easy to miss in a reduced web image, but they keep the scene grounded in ordinary life around the mill.[2]
 The Red Tree Piet Mondrian.jpg)
Light is the organising force. A pale central streak opens between darker mauve cloud bands. Water in the foreground returns patches of sky and the dark mill's reflection. Rather than a single flat blue, the sky has layers, and the reflection breaks them into another set of shapes. The mill's vertical form crosses those horizontal bands, giving the picture a firm centre.
The painting is a landscape, not an abstract grid. Still, the museum notes the nearly vertical-and-horizontal alignment of the mill blades and the strong yellow, blue and red accents. Those observations explain why the canvas can feel ordered while retaining clouds, figures, water and a working building.[2]
Which mill is it?
RKD groups A400 with several views of the Stammer mill. A397–A399 have related titles involving a summer house and haystack. A400's streaked sky and current Nelson-Atkins object number identify this picture. The route is not an alternate page for the Oostzijdse Mill or for Mondrian's later red mill at Domburg. Distinct mills and viewpoints deserve distinct labels.[1]
The museum's title and rich description give a strong image match: dark mill slightly right of centre, horizontal bright sky, bridge and foreground water. The existing local reproduction preserves those features and was retained.
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Watch on YouTubeHow did it reach Kansas City?
The Nelson-Atkins provenance traces a Rotterdam dealer by 1943, the van Andel family in the Netherlands, and a transfer to their daughter Johanna Mead in 1960. It records a 1989 Christie's sale, a later 2001 sale and private ownership before the museum bought the picture in 2016. The museum candidly notes uncertainty about what happened immediately after the 2001 auction. The page follows its documented outline without pretending that every link in the chain is settled.[2]
One unusually personal detail in that provenance is explicitly marked as family recollection: Johanna Mead told the museum's researcher in 2016 that her mother, Georgine van Andel, had exchanged a seal fur coat for the painting during the Second World War. Mead said her parents later gave her the canvas when she moved to the United States in 1960, as a reminder of the Netherlands. The museum presents the exchange as an oral account, not a transaction reconstructed from a surviving invoice. It gives the painting a human history while leaving the uncertainties of wartime and later private ownership visible.[2]
The object record also records a 1966 Art Gallery of Toronto exhibition and currently labels the painting on view in the museum. Display location may change, but the accession 2016.1 and the acquisition history make the current collection clear. The older RKD private-location entry should be read as a catalogue snapshot, not as a contradiction about the physical work.[1][2]
The museum announced the 2016 acquisition in honour of Henry W. Bloch, its former board chair, and placed it in a presentation of European art spanning the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. That acquisition account connects this Dutch landscape to the museum's own interpretation: it points out the almost level and upright mill blades, the gridded bridge, and the bands of red, yellow and blue in the sky. These are visible features of A400, even though its figures, water and atmospheric light keep it firmly within landscape painting.[3]
A working place, not just a silhouette
The bridge, boat, cottage, woman and cow in the Nelson-Atkins description make this a populated landscape. The mill is visually commanding, but it belongs to a crossing and waterway used by people and animals. In a small reproduction the dark structure can overwhelm these details. Looking for them changes the scale of the picture: the mill becomes a built landmark within a lived environment rather than a freestanding emblem.[2]
The layered sky is equally specific. Long mauve and blue passages are divided by a lighter yellow band, and the water breaks their reflection into smaller pieces. This creates two different kinds of horizontal movement: broad atmospheric streaks above and interrupted reflected strokes below. The mill and its sails bridge them. The visual order comes from observed landscape elements, while the unusually emphatic colour anticipates the questions Mondrian would pursue in later work without making this painting abstract.
Where to begin looking
Start with the pale central break in the sky and trace it across the mill's dark silhouette. Then follow the same light down into the water. This reveals how the composition holds together without requiring the little human and animal details to disappear. Their scale confirms the mill's height, while the bridge establishes a crossing between near bank and distant buildings. The Nelson-Atkins record is especially useful because it names these details and the 2016 acquisition; RKD's older collection field alone would leave the modern location unclear.[1][2]
Mondrian artworks directory
Frequently asked questions
Where is Stammer Mill with Streaked Sky ?
At The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, object 2016.1.[2]
What is its RKD number?
A400, distinct from neighbouring Stammer-mill studies A397–A399.[1]
Why does RKD list a private collection?
Discussion
Where does the mill cut across the streaked sky?
Reader Insights
How does the water reflect the scene?
Which details show the working landscape?
Which details show the working landscape?
Join the Conversation
Share what you notice in this painting below.
References
- RKD – Netherlands Institute for Art History, Gein landscape catalogue, A400 and neighbouring Stammer-mill studies. View source.
- The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, official object 2016.1, material, size, visual description, exhibition and researched provenance. View source.
- The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 17 October 2016 acquisition announcement, naming Henry W. Bloch and discussing the mill's structure and colour within its European collection. View source.
- Lead image credit. Piet Mondrian, Stammer Mill with Streaked Sky, 1905–07, oil on canvas, 74.3 × 96.52 cm, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art 2016.1, RKD A400.
