A number of black horizontal and vertical lines containing blue, yellow or red color areas. These are the basic ingredients of Piet Mondriaan’s most famous paintings. He was born in Amersfoort and died in New York. Although few people know that the world-famous painter lived and worked in Uden, Brabant, for more than a year. “He found a lot of peace here,” says artist Maarten van den Elzen.
“We are literally following in the footsteps of the later world-famous Piet Mondriaan,” says word artist Maarten van den Elzen. He is standing right in front of a toy store on a busy Sint Janstraat. “It’s completely different here than it was back then. A lot has been demolished.”
This also includes the house where the famous painter lived for more than a year in 1904. “Mondriaan rented part of a house from cattle dealer Lewieke van Zwanenbergh. Besides living there, he also had his studio there. So you can say that we are standing on holy ground here.”
Pieter Cornelis Mondriaan, better known as Piet Mondriaan, was born on March 7, 1872 in Amersfoort. During his life he moved regularly, most of which within Amsterdam. “He had arguments and misery there. Mondriaan slowly became a bit overwrought and looked for peace.”
A friend of his, Albert van den Briel, lived in Brabant. He tipped Mondriaan to come to him. In 1903 they went for a walk together in the area of Uden. “He then decided to move to Uden for a certain period.”
“He was called Piet the painter around here.”
In the year he lived in the Brabant village he found his peace again. “At one point he had a little dog. He called it Beppie. They went out together on their bicycles. He had made a kind of easel on his handlebars. He could put his paper or canvases on it, so he could sketch or paint on the spot.”
“He was called Piet the painter around here,” Maarten says about the painter. “He was still very unknown at the time. He mainly painted many farms and landscapes, but also windmills. He painted four, including the Jetten Mill in Uden.”
There is some discussion in the village as to whether it was really this mill that Mondrian painted. Although van den Elzen knows better. “It is indeed the Jetten Mill. One hundred percent certain. Only the mill was moved after Mondriaan’s departure in 1919, which causes confusion.”
Later, Piet Mondrian developed the abstract style that made him so famous. This can already be seen in some of his Brabant paintings. “That’s how he painted this farm from 1876 in Nistelrode,” says Maarten.
“Today the farm is almost exactly as it was when Mondrian painted it,” he adds. “This is where a bit of a change started in Mondriaan’s work. It was no longer entirely according to the Hague school. It took the shape of what his style later became. It became a bit more abstract.”
Months later, the painter regained his inner peace and left for Amsterdam. “Not much later he moved to Paris, where he made his breakthrough. He ended his career and life in New York. He always took a cross from Brabant with him to all those places and continued to make his coffee the way he learned here.”
“And he still lives on here in Uden,” says Maarten proudly. “For example, we have Mondriaanplein here. At the front of the library you will find a number of columns on which recognizable works by Mondriaan have been painted. And a pavilion here is inspired by one of the abstract paintings.”
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