Farm building with fence reaching to the water

This 1902 painting showing a farm building and fence extending to the water's edge is among the more geometrically resolved of Mondrian's early Dutch landscapes, with the fence line providing a strong horizontal that divides land from water with near-architectural clarity. The Kunstmuseum Den Haag holds dozens of Mondrian's early works, allowing the progressive clarification of his pictorial thinking from naturalism toward abstraction to be traced in unusual detail. This canvas shows a painter highly attuned to the structural essentials of the Dutch polder landscape — flatness, horizontal dominance, and the relationship between solid form and water reflection.

The fence line creates a powerful horizontal division; reflections in the water introduce a vertical mirroring that complicates the simple composition. Brushwork is confident and somewhat loosened, showing Post-Impressionist influence. The palette is subdued — grey-greens, muted ochres.