![Theo van Doesburg - Composition XIIL [1918]](http://c1.staticflickr.com/1/436/18661248282_0fb526002b_o.jpg)
Theo van Doesburg (Utrecht, August 30, 1883 - Davos, April 7, 1931) was a Dutch artist, who practised painting, writing, poetry and architecture. He is best known as the founder and leader of De Stijl. His first exhibition was in 1908. From 1912 onwards, he supported his works by writing for magazines. Although he considered himself to be a modern painter at that time, his early work is in line with the Amsterdam Impressionists and is influenced by Vincent van Gogh, both in style and subject matter. This suddenly changed in 1913 after reading Wassily Kandinsky's Rückblicke, in which he looks back at his life as a painter from 1903–1913. It made him realise there was a higher, more spiritual level in painting that originates from the mind rather than from everyday life, and that abstraction is the only logical outcome of this.
[Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam - Oil on panel, 29 x 30 cm]