For a time Bart van der Leck adhered to the rigid geometric guidelines of De Stijl , but gradually began to attach greater importance to the figurative elements of his compositions . The present oil painting belonging to the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza , which Christopher Green considers to be a sketch for a larger work , clearly illustrates the balance between abstraction and figuration that characterises most of his output.

The painting’s first owner , Hendricus Petrus Bremmer (1871–1956), was a major collector and foremost critic in the Netherlands, who later became Helene Kröller-Müller’s chief advisor. The correspondence between Van der Leck and his patron attests to the latter’s influence on the artist.

Paloma Alarcó