Born in Amersfoort, Netherlands, Piet Mondrian was the son of a Calvinist minister. His uncle encouraged him to draw and paint, especially outdoors. He began by painting classical landscapes. Then in 1892 he began his studies at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Amsterdam.

At the beginning of 1900, Mondrian became a symbolist, which was fashionable throughout Europe. His landscapes were imbued with an intellectual and even moral dimension. It was at this time that he realised the importance of using colour as a tool of expression and also developed certain affinities with Fauvism. Mondrian left traditional figuration and entered the world of the avant-garde.

Inspired by the art of Vincent van Gogh, Mondrian developed a lyrical style. Like his counterpart, he emigrated to Paris in 1911. An agnostic, he believed in theosophy, a practice that combined spiritual research with an approach to science. At first, seduced by Cubism, Piet Mondrian resisted the figurative mode and adopted abstract languages. In 1913, Vassily Kandinsky questioned the authenticity of this artistic revolution. In 1914, the artist developed his own language of pictorial expression, fundamentally geometric, based on the interplay of horizontals and verticals and on the choice of pure colours that are not subject to any imitation of reality. His works Broadway Boogie Woogie, Composition in Red, Yellow, Blue and Black and New York City demonstrate this influence.

In 1940, Mondrian moved to the United States and settled in New York. The city's imposing buildings and rectilinear grid were a source of inspiration for Mondrian. A jazz fan, he loved the atmosphere there, fuelled by the arrival of a number of avant-garde European artists during the Second World War. Mondrian became well known in the United States. He died in 1944.