Piet Mondrian

This piece by Mondrian supplies a solid link between his early work and his later, more well known work.  His later work utilizes crisp, rather sharp edges to create strict rectangles of varying effect.  In these pieces, he often used blue, red, yellow, black and white, believing these to be the fundamental colors.  His career seemed to be driven by a search for the empirical, and in this piece, he is well on his way.  It resembles cubist pieces done around the same time, capturing the essence of the subject in its most simplified units (cubes).  There appears to be a figure, possibly a human form, or that of a tree in the center of the canvas.  The use of colors here evokes a muted tone, while simultaneously bringing life to the figure.  Here, Mondrian's use of the rectangle (along with the triangle in some instances) is the means to an end, rather than the end itself as it becomes in his later work.