"He was 50 years old when he made this painting, which is remarkably late for an artist to find his major style," Cooper said. "That grid of lines you see in cubist paintings has become the entire subject, and whatever still-life objects there might have been within that grid have been dismissed."

With this style, Mondrian explored the structure of oppositions, but tried to make them fuse into unity and balance.

Mondrian's style also reflects his love of jazz and dance--some say there is syncopation in his work--and his interest in socialism by the "egalitarian" composition of elements, according to Cooper.

Mondrian gave the painting as a gift in 1925, and it has remained in the same family ever since. The family protected the painting, hardly exposing it, Cooper said, describing his delight upon finding a thick layer of dust on the top edge of the paining.

"I think they were aware that it's better to do nothing to the painting," Cooper said, adding that the painting was even still in its original frame.

Mondrian took great care making simple wooden frames for his paintings, but many have been discarded.

"I think one thing we'll do with the painting is take it up to the...conservation lab and study it with various techniques, X-ray and infrared, that allow you to see what's going on beneath the surface," Cooper said.

Since it fills a gap in Harvard's collection, the painting will be on display almost constantly, according to Cooper. It will be delivered to the museum next week and put on display soon after that.