The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 18, 2025

Rectangular oil painting with solid black lines outlining squares and rectangles painted white, red-orange, blue, and yellow. The largest section is a central, white square, with a white rectangle above and beside it, in the lower left. Upper left are two square red sections. Right of the central white square runs a narrow yellow band against the canvas's edge while another narrow band below is divided half blue and half white. Fine cracks mark the smooth paint.

Composition with Red, Yellow, and Blue

1927

Piet Mondrian

(Dutch, 1872–1944)
Netherlands
oil on canvas
Framed: 62.2 x 62.6 x 10.8 cm (24 1/2 x 24 5/8 x 4 1/4 in.); Unframed: 49.5 x 49.5 cm (19 1/2 x 19 1/2 in.)
Contemporary Collection of The Cleveland Museum of Art 1967.215
Location: 223 20th Century Avant-Garde

Did You Know?

The small strip of wood around the outside of the canvas, painted the same gray as the canvas surface, is Mondrian’s original frame for the painting.

Description

During the 1910s, Piet Mondrian’s art progressed from Cubism to an increasingly abstract style based on the form of a grid. He completely abandoned the representation of natural appearances, limiting himself to horizontal and vertical rectangles and three primary colors (red, yellow, and blue) along with black and white. Intensely intellectual and deeply philosophical, Mondrian believed that following the devastation of World War I, such abstract compositions could contribute to a more harmonious society by communicating in a universal, visual language.
  • J. J. P. Oud, Wassenaar (1955). (E. V. Thaw).
  • Henning, Edward B. “A Classic Painting by Piet Mondrian.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 55, no. 8 (October 1968): 241–249. Reproduced: Cover www.jstor.org
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969. Reproduced: p. 198 archive.org
    Cleveland Museum of Art. Art of the Twentieth Century in the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: Dept. of Art History & Education, CMA, 1969. Mentioned and reproduced: p. 2 archive.org
    Kupka, Frank, Paul Klee, Larry Poons, Richard Hunt, and Edward B. Henning. “A Group of Twentieth-Century Works of Art Recently Acquired.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 57, no. 4 (April 1970): 107–126. Mentioned and reproduced: p. 106-107, fig. 2 www.jstor.org
    Henning, Edward B. “Pablo Picasso: Bouteille, Verre, et Fourchette.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 59, no. 7 (September 1972): 195–203. Mentioned and reproduced: p. 199-201, fig. 14 www.jstor.org
    Henning, Edward B. “Planes, Structure, Color, and Content.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 61, no. 7 (September 1974): 223–239. Mentioned and reproduced: p . 230-231, fig. 15 www.jstor.org
    Diller, Burgoyne, Leon Polk Smith, and Edward B. Henning. “Two New Paintings in the Neo-Plastic Tradition.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 62, no. 4 (April 1975): 106–119. Mentioned and reproduced: p. 106-107, fig. 1 www.jstor.org
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. Reproduced: p. 249 archive.org
    Hinson, Tom E. “Recent Paintings by Richard Diebenkorn and Jack Tworkov.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 67, no. 2 (February 1980): 31–40. Mentioned and reproduced: p. 34 www.jstor.org
    Hinson, Tom E. “Eight New Photographs.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 68, no. 2 (February 1981): 51–62. Mentioned and reproduced: p. 57, fig. 8 www.jstor.org
    Landau, Ellen G. “‘Space and Pictorial Life’ Hans Hofmann’s ‘Smaragd Red and Germinating Yellow.’” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 72, no. 5 (September 1985): 310–322. Mentioned and reproduced: p. 320, fig. 18 www.jstor.org
    Henning, Edward B. Creativity in Art and Science, 1860-1960. [Cleveland, Ohio]: Published by the Cleveland Museum of Art in cooperation with Indiana University Press, 1987. Mentioned and reproduced: P. 122, no. 30
    Neet, Jane. “Mondrian’s ‘Chrysanthemum.’” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 74, no. 7 (September 1987): 282–303. Mentioned and reproduced: p. 283, fig. 1 www.jstor.org
    Foster, Carter, "A Drawing by Myron Stout", Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland Art: The Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine. Vol. 42 no. 02, February 2002 Mentioned & reproduced: p. 6-7 archive.org
    Sims, Lowery Stokes. The Persistence of Geometry: Form, Content, and Culture in the Collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2006. Mentioned and reproduced: P. 64-65, fig. 12
    Cleveland Museum of Art. The CMA Companion: A Guide to the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2014. Mentioned and reproduced: P. 300
    Gemeentemuseum ('s-Gravenhage). Mondriaan. 1955.
    Janssen, Hans. Mondrian & De Stijl. Madrid: Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, 2020. Reproduced: P. 163
    Park, J. P. "Pastmodern: The Traditions of the Avant-Garde in Early Asian Art." Transactions of the Oriental Ceramic Society 87 (February 14, 2023): 43-57. Mentioned and reproduced: p. 54 (fig. 13)
    Léal, Brigitte. Mondrian. Paris: Citadelles & Mazenod, 2024. Reproduced: p. 215, no. 224; Mentioned: p. 212
  • Mondrian and De Stijl. Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina SofÍa, Madrid, Spain (organizer) (November 10, 2020-March 1, 2021) https://www.museoreinasofia.es/exposiciones/mondrian-stijl.
    The Jazz Age: American Style in the 1920s. Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, New York, NY (April 7-August 20, 2017); The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 30, 2017-January 14, 2018).
    Mondrian / De Stijl . Centre national d'art et de culture Georges Pompidou, Paris cedex O4, France (organizer) (December 1, 2010-March 21, 2011).
    Centre national d'art et de culture Georges Pompidou, Paris, France (12/1/2010 - 3/21/2011): "Mondrian / De Stijl"Mondrian", p. 236.
    Monet to Dalí: Modern Masters from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Beijing World Art Museum (May 26-August 27, 2006); Mori Art Center (September 16-November 26, 2006); Seoul Art Center, South Korea (December 22, 2006-March 28, 2007); Seoul Olympic Museum of Art, South Korea (April 7-May 20, 2007); Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver, Canada (June 9-September 16, 2007); The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 21, 2007-January 13, 2008); Frist Art Museum, Nashville, TN (February 15-June 1, 2008); Utah Museum of Fine Arts, Salt Lake City, UT (June 22-September 21, 2008); The Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, MI (October 12, 2008-January 18, 2009).
    L'art aux Pays-Bas au XXeme siecle. Musée d'Art Moderne de Paris (organizer) (March 23-July 18, 1994).
    Creativity in Art and Science, 1860-1960. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 16-November 8, 1987).
    Mondrian Retrospective. Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY (organizer) (October 7-December 12, 1971); Kunstmuseum Bern, Bern, Switzerland (January 26-March 26, 1972).
    Year in Review for 1968. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (January 29-March 9, 1969).
  • {{cite web|title=Composition with Red, Yellow, and Blue|url=false|author=Piet Mondrian|year=1927|access-date=18 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1967.215