More Marlow Moss

Marlow Moss

Nothing on Ms Moss since the 2012 Rome Mondrian exhibition and then two events come to light in one week.


First, an exhibition at St Ives all summer, the piece featured on the Tate web page being Balanced Forms in Gunmetal on Cornish Granite 1956–7.

Then a painting for sale at Sotheby's in July, White, Red and Black, 1949.

Another Mondrian Dog

Mondrian's dog Beppie

Mondrian's other dog

There's an earlier entry on the subject, created in July 2012.

That was based on a photograph spotted by Charles Darwent in the Mondriaanhuis the full title being Albert van den Briel and Mondriaan's dog. The name of the dog was confirmed as Beppie.


Another dog is shown in Henkels Mondrian from figuration to abstraction. The chapter Mondrian: a life in pictures, which also provides material for the Mondrian ID entry, shows a photograph captioned 'Mrs Crabb on horseback with Mondrian's dog, 1897'.

There is no text relating to the photograph other than the caption.

Mondrian and Hannah H. Crabb taught each other (painting and English respectively), he gave her a painting, designed a book plate for her and travelled to Cornwall with her in 1900, but I always assumed she was a Miss rather than a Mrs. If it is her mother in the snap, perhaps taken when he stayed with the family in Cornwall, then (a) there is a discrepancy over the dates and (b) I concluded that the dog is unlikely to be PM's. Charles pointed out that he could have taken the dog with him as quarantine regulations were not introduced until 1974.


Perhaps Mr. Henkels can help.

Mondrian ID documents

Finding a couple of new ones recently in Henkels prompted this list of known identity documents.
There are (with sources in brackets, where I've noted it):

• 25 May 1909 Theosophical Society membership certificate (Henkels)
• 1 Jun 1912 Louvre copyist's permit (Bax)
• Mondrian's calling card with map added by PM (26 Rue du Départ)
• 22 May 1940 GB identity document (from Tate Etc magazine)
• 22 Sep 1941 Declaration of Intention to become a US citizen (Henkels)
• 3 Oct (?) 1940 US Identification Card

Theosphical Society

Louvre pass

calling card

GB registration document

US Declaration of Intention

US identification card

At the bank

Barclays is, excitingly, offering personalised bank cards. They have understandable restrictions on the images which you can use. I have two cards and so successfully uploaded a family portrait. For the other, of course, I would like a Mondrian.

My first choice was my favourite Mondrian photograph, taken in a London garden, by John Cecil Stephenson in the late 1930s. This was rejected, presumably as it was regarded as copyright, but how they distinguished between this and a snap of what might have been my dad is a mystery.

My second attempt was a Mondrian painting which does not exist in anything resembling the format in which I tried to use it. This was B149 ,  Komposition mit Gelb, Zinnober, Schwarz, Blau und verschiedenen grauen und weissen Tönen, 1922: lost following its inclusion in the Nazis' decadent art exhibition, Entartete Kunst. It is only known in pre-war B&W photographs, but is part of the Reconstruction Project. Rejected by Barclays, perhaps because it, demonstrably, looks like a Mondrian.

My third attempt was to be part of a Mondrian jigsaw of Broadway Boogie-Woogie shown in Toys and Games, but this was not large enough (featured early on the site when space was far more expensive). I thought this might be accepted as it looks as much like a map of Wales as it does a PM painting.

Where next? Any of the highlights on the main Artifacts page would fit the bill, but most would face almost certain rejection: the Camel cigarette packet is a particular favourite but tobacco and alcohol are specifically excluded. Anything from Page 1 of Homages would be good, but, again, would probably be rejected out of hand.

I'll try my stained glass version of Theo van Doesburg's 1917 Cow. Not PM, but it's in the ballpark. Submitted.
[10th Dec] Rejected: no hint is ever given of the clause which has been infringed.

[10th Dec] I found another snap of the jigsaw in the Collections Memorial page. Though the colours are rather strained, I have given it a try. I think I might try the Moondrian plush next and then perhaps the Reitveld chair.

[11th Dec] In some ways I'm a little disappointed to say that the jigsaw was accepted. It's a piece of Mondrian rather than the De Stijl alternatives I had tried and was planning, but I might have preferred the Moondrian.

Mondrian Pastiches

The spur for this page was finding Sally Swain's Great Housewives of Art for 99p at an Oxfam Bookshop in Edinburgh recently. This prompted me to dig out all my similar books and conclude that they fall into two categories:

• A theme applied to the works of a range of famous painters. In Swain's case the theme is housewives, but animals are more common .
• A craft applied to the works of a range of famous painters. Here we have woodwork, knitting and, indeed, painting copies.
• Sitting in the middle is Wehrli's delightful Kunst Aufräumen.

Swain

Starting with Sally Swain, as the title suggests, this examines the supporting roles of artists' spouses. It is ironic, or perhaps merely coincidental, that later on the day I found the book, we saw Gaël le Cornec's astonishing performance as Camille Claudel, exploited by Rodin, at the Fringe. There is also a splendid American Gothic in the book.

Baird and Cox

From Arty Cats by David Baird and Vicky Cox, based on Mondrian's last work, B324 Broadway Boogie Woogie, 1942-1943. There is also a fine Duchamp homage.

Mutts of the Masters, by Michael Patrick. The text is wrong on many levels, but Mondrian  did have a dog.

Patrick

Warmack

From William Warmack's Composition with Cat: Lost Masterpieces of the Twentieth Century, an elegant piece. 
Identifying Mondrians tells us that there are nineteen paintings with one red, one yellow and one blue plane, but none with this configuration.

There is also a book comprised entirely of Mondrian pastiches by Allesandro Sanna, which we found in the 2012 Rome show, but I'm not getting that until my birthday.

I regret to say that the Mondrian pastiche is rarely the strongest work in the book, although Warmack's is pretty good.

As noted above, the Wehrli does not fit into either of my categories.

From Ursus Wehrli, a frighteningly clever book concerned with tidying up art. As advised elsewhere, do not buy the English version of this which is out of print and sells for £00s, get the German version, still on sale.

A book of knitting patterns, the results modelled by various minor British TV celebrities of the time, Knitting Masterpieces by Ruth Herring and Karen Manners. There are two Mondrian offerings I will try to identify later.

Magic Carpets, by Melinda Coss and Sylvie Soudan is a surprisingly sophisticated book, offering a Constructivist rug and mentioning Mondrian in that context. The result is more von Doesburg than Mondrian.

Mondrian: where are they?

I have listed all Mondrian's works by location. The page is here.
The data is mostly from the Catalogue Raisonné, which was published in 1998, with a few updates and new discoveries which I have come across.
It took a while to decide on how to present the information but geographically by city within country seemed the most useful.
Some refinement and additional research is needed, but the bulk of the data is there.

The map is an apposite image from an unnamed artist, perpetually on sale at ebay.

Mondrian's Dog

Beppie

The entries on the web site in this context have, to date, only shown Mondrianesque paintings incorporating animals. But. I am reliably informed that Mondrian, while living in The Netherlands, had a pet dog.

I had a beer with Charles Darwent, author of Mondrian in London, today (12th July). He reports that the Mondriaanhuis has a photograph of PM's dog. The name was (something along the lines of, phonetically) Beppé, though being Dutch the option of a more complex spelling was taken. More news when available and apologies for British linguacentricity.

[1st Aug] The Mondriaanhuis has confirmed the story, "Unfortunately we don't have much information on the subject. I can only tell you that Mondriaan owned a dog named Beppie when he lived in Uden en Amsterdam. This would be around 1904-1906. The photo your friend was refering to is not available in digital form and can be found in archives in The Netherlands. If you decide to look for the photo just should know that it isn't Mondriaan and his dog, bus Albert van den Briel and Mondriaan's dog."

A382 Isar Harlemia

A122 Resting Dog

Mondrian painted a dog portrait, A382 Isar Harlemia: A Saint Bernard, 1905-08.



And there's a sketch, A122 Resting Dog, c.1898-99

A12 Puppy

[26Jul12] I have found another, A12 Puppy, 1891. An oil painting, but I only have a B&W image.