History of painting group's theories. Next to van Doesburg, the group's principal members were the painters Piet Mondrian, Vilmos Huszár, and Bart van der Leck, and the architects Gerrit Rietveld, Robert van 't Hoff, and J. J. P. Oud. The artistic philosophy that formed a basis for the group's work is known as "neoplasticism" — the new plastic art (or "Nieuwe Beelding" in Dutch). Proponents of De Stijl sought to express a new utopian ideal of spiritual harmony and order. They advocated pure abstraction and universality by a reduction to the essentials of form and colour; they simplified visual compositions to the vertical
Jacob Jan van der Maaten of it on the wall. Vincent van Gogh referred in several letters to his brother Theo van Gogh to the work of Van der Maaten. The Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, Kröller-Müller Museum in Otterlo, Gemeentemuseum Den Haag, Groninger Museum, Museum Boijmans van Beuningen in Rotterdam, CODA Museum Apeldoorn and Museum Elburg have paintings of Van der Maaten. Jacob Jan van der Maaten Jacob Jan van der Maaten (Elburg, 4 January 1820 – Apeldoorn, 16 April 1879) was a Dutch painter and etcher. Van der Maaten was a pupil of Hendrikus van de Sande Bakhuyzen and studied at the Royal Academy of Art,