Oostzijdse Mill along the River Gein by Moonlight

This landscape clearly reveals how indebted Mondriaan was to the Hague School as a young artist. A few years earlier, he had copied Gabriëls’ In the Month of July in the Rijksmuseum (on view in this gallery). Although the compositions resemble each other, the general impression in each case is entirely different. Mondriaan modified the lines and colours in order to create a non-realistic, decorative painting.