Fries Museum acquires early Mondrian portrait

The Fries Museum in Leeuwarden has acquired an early painting by Piet Mondriaan. It is a portrait from 1901 of the Frisian couple, Egbert Roels Kuipers and Jantje Tjeerds Wiegersma, who moved to Amsterdam. The portrait will be on display from 22 October as part of the exhibition Reunited with Mondriaan.

The work is "the only Mondrian with a recognizable Frisian touch," according to the museum. "Her Frisian hood shows that Jantje Tjeerds Wiegersma still clung to her Frisian identity, even though she had lived in Amsterdam for almost twenty years." The painting was offered to the Fries Museum by a family because of its link to the province. It has now also been restored. The museum did not disclose what it paid for the painting.

Villa Mondriaan, a museum in Winterswijk, will also show a new, early Mondriaan starting this week. Musician Gijs Jolink, co-organizer of the Zwarte Cross festival, together with businessman and benefactor Anjo Joldersma, provided an early Mondriaan on long-term loan to the Villa Mondriaan on Wednesday. The painting's name translates to, "Farmhouse Interior with Fireplace in the Achterhoek."

The museum also displays more early work by the artist. He wound up in Winterswijk as an 8-year-old when his father became headmaster there.

Jolink and Joldersma, both from the Achterhoek region, recently bought the artwork for just under 40,000 euros at an auction in Amsterdam. According to a spokeswoman for the museum, the work shows a farm typical of the region, although it is not known exactly where Mondrian painted it in the early 1890s. Mondriaan himself was born in 1872.

His later work is held in higher esteem in art history, and huge sums of money are paid for it. Seven years ago, Composition No. III, with red, blue, yellow and black, from 1929, was sold off at auction for 44.4 million euros.