7 March 2018 – On the birthday of Piet Mondrian (1872-1944), the RKD – Netherlands Institute for Art History is launching a digital catalogue raisonné of all 1473 known works by the Dutch master, which includes 30 new attributions. This online publication makes the complete work of Mondrian accessible to a wide audience for the first time.
Following the publication of the standard work Piet Mondrian: catalogue raisonné by Robert Welsh (1932-2000) and Joop Joosten (1926-2017) in 1998, research into the work of Mondrian has gained momentum. The digital successor, catalogue.pietmondrian.nl, presents 30 works that have recently been attributed to Mondrian, including abstract paintings whose existence was previously only presumed as well as several naturalistic works by the master that were unknown or had gone missing, for example the painting of the Oostzijdse Mill along the River Gein by Moonlight (c. 1903), which was acquired by the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam in 2005.
The digital catalogue of the work of Piet Mondrian contains a wealth of new information about exhibitions, auctions, provenance as well as literature, and is constantly being further updated. More than three quarters of the works are illustrated in colour. The catalogue can be searched by date, subject, technique or format.
The need for a digital catalogue raisonné of the work of Mondrian arose from The Mondrian Papers project. Piet Mondrian: digital catalogue raisonné will be a vital research instrument for The Mondrian Papers and will be used to cross reference the artworks that are mentioned in Mondrian’s letters and theoretical writings.