Mondrian’s Lady Friends

For a long time, Mondrian was thought to have been some kind of hermit. A teetotaller who never went out and had no girlfriends. Nothing could be further from the truth. Piet Mondrian was a believer in ‘absolute love’ and – although he never married or had children – there were plenty of women in his life.

In 1910 Mondrian got engaged to Greta Heijbroek, daughter of an Amsterdam businessman. A year later, however, he realized that he needed to devote himself fully to his art. He couldn’t afford to have a wife at his side to distract him from that commitment. From one day to the next, he broke off the engagement and left for Paris.

In 1928, while living in Paris, Mondrian fell madly in love with a much younger girl, Lily Bles. He proposed to her but her father argued against the match, believing that the age difference was far too great. In the end, Lily turned Mondrian down. The refusal marked a major turning point in his artistic development. From then on, Mondrian would resume his vigorous experimentation, for example exploring the possibility of using coloured lines in his paintings instead of black ones.

In addition to these key love affairs, Mondrian was also very attracted to Tonia Stieltjes, who was married to inventor Willem Stieltjes and modelled for many artists. Tonia showed a lively interest in Mondrian’s writings – to his surprise, since most people found them unintelligible. He regarded her as a kindred spirit and, when she died in 1932, wrote to a friend, ‘I have nobody left now in Paris.’

He regularly encountered women who were more in love with him than he was with them. He cherished their friendship, but had no amorous feelings towards them. Even so, these women often helped him in his work. In Amsterdam, Eva de Beneditty modelled for him and wrote a journal full of declarations of love. Jo Steijling didn’t have much money but bought his paintings whenever she could afford it and even managed to get his work onto the walls of the Stedelijk. In New York, a married woman called Charmion von Wiegand felt immediately attracted to Mondrian. He resolutely refused her advances but they continued to have long conversations about art. Mondrian even let her into the studio when he was working on Victory Boogie Woogie.

Finally, Mondrian had a large number of close female friends, who were always ready to provide help when needed. There was Winifred Nicholson, for example, who travelled with him from Paris to London when he fled the approaching war in 1938. Or Maud van Loon, who took in many of his household effects, including his record collection and easel. And there was Maaike Middelkoop, fiancée of composer Jakob van Domselaer, with whom he took long nocturnal walks and had serious philosophical discussions. Lying on the heath outside Laren, they would gaze up at the stars and talk endlessly about life and art.