Anthonij "Anton" Rudolf Mauve (; 18 September 18385 February 1888) was a Dutch realist painter who was a leading member of the Hague School. He signed his paintings 'A. Mauve' or with a monogrammed 'A.M.'. A master colorist, he was a very significant early influence on his cousin-in-law

Vincent van Gogh Vincent Willem van Gogh (; 30 March 185329 July 1890) was a Dutch Post-Impressionist painter who is among the most famous and influential figures in the history of Western art. In just over a decade, he created approximately 2,100 artworks ...

. His best-known paintings depict peasants working in the fields. His paintings of flocks of sheep were especially popular with American patrons, so popular that a price differential developed between scenes of "sheep coming" and "sheep going".

Life and work

Anton Mauve - Morgenrit langs het strand

Anton Mauve was born on 18 September 1838 in

Zaandam Zaandam () is a city in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of North Holland, Netherlands. It is the main city of the municipality of Zaanstad and received City rights in the Netherlands, city rights in 1811. It is located on the river Zaan ...

, a town in the Dutch province of

North Holland North Holland (, ) is a Provinces of the Netherlands, province of the Netherlands in the northwestern part of the country. It is located on the North Sea, north of South Holland and Utrecht (province), Utrecht, and west of Friesland and Flevola ...

. A year after his birth, his father Willem Carel Mauve, a

Mennonite Mennonites are a group of Anabaptism, Anabaptist Christianity, Christian communities tracing their roots to the epoch of the Radical Reformation. The name ''Mennonites'' is derived from the cleric Menno Simons (1496–1561) of Friesland, part of ...

chaplain, was sent to

Haarlem Haarlem (; predecessor of ''Harlem'' in English language, English) is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Netherlands. It is the capital of the Provinces of the Nether ...

, the capital city of the province where Mauve grew up. He was apprenticed to the painter Pieter Frederik van Os followed by Wouter Verschuur. In his further development he worked with Paul Gabriël, painting from nature, and they regularly stayed and worked together at

Oosterbeek Oosterbeek is a village in the eastern part of Netherlands. It is located in the municipality of Renkum in the province of Gelderland, about west of Arnhem. The oldest part of Oosterbeek is the Benedendorp (Lower Village), on the northern bank ...

, the 'Dutch

Barbizon Barbizon () is a commune (town) in the Seine-et-Marne department in north-central France. It is located near the Fontainebleau Forest. Demographics The inhabitants are called ''Barbizonais''. Art history The Barbizon school of painters is n ...

'. He was a friend of renowned Dutch landscape painters

Jozef Israëls Jozef Israëls (; 27 January 1824 – 12 August 1911) was a Dutch Painting, painter. He was a leading member of the group of landscape painters referred to as the Hague School and was, during his lifetime, "the most respected Dutch artist of th ...

and Willem Maris and, encouraged by their example, he abandoned his early highly finished manner for a freer, looser method of painting, and the brilliant palette of his youthful work for a tender lyric harmony which is generally restricted to delicate greys, greens, and light blue. Most of Mauve's work depicts people and animals in outdoor settings. In his ''Morning Ride'' in the Rijksmuseum, for example, fashionable equestrians at the seacoast are seen riding away from the viewer. An unconventional detail, horse droppings in the foreground, attests his commitment to realism. In 1872, Mauve settled in

The Hague The Hague ( ) is the capital city of the South Holland province of the Netherlands. With a population of over half a million, it is the third-largest city in the Netherlands. Situated on the west coast facing the North Sea, The Hague is the c ...

where he became a leading member of the Hague School of painters and one of the founders of the Hollandsche Teekenmaatschappij in 1876, as well as playing a leading role in the development of the Pulchri Studio, The Hague's most influential art society at the time. In November 1874 he married Ariëtte (Jet) Carbentus (1856–1894), and together they had a son, Anton (1876–1962), who also became a painter. In the last two years of his life, Mauve settled in the village of Laren in the region surrounding

Hilversum Hilversum () is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of North Holland, Netherlands. Located in the heart of the Gooi, it is ...

called the Gooi area. The group of painters who settled there, including

and Albert Neuhuys, came to be known collectively as the Larense School and the region around the Gooi was dubbed 'Mauve land' as far afield as the United States. Mauve influenced many other painters one of whom was the Scottish painter, Robert McGregor (1847–1922). Mauve died suddenly in

Arnhem Arnhem ( ; ; Central Dutch dialects, Ernems: ''Èrnem'') is a Cities of the Netherlands, city and List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality situated in the eastern part of the Netherlands, near the German border. It is the capita ...

on 5 February 1888.

Relationship with Vincent van Gogh

Mauve was married to van Gogh's cousin Ariëtte (Jet) Sophia Jeannette Carbentus, and he was a major influence on van Gogh, who revered him. He is mentioned, directly or indirectly, in 152 of van Gogh's surviving letters. Van Gogh spent three weeks at Mauve's studio at the end of 1881 and during that time he made his first experiments in painting under Mauve's tutelage, first in oils and then early the next year in watercolour (previously he had concentrated on drawing). Mauve continued to encourage him and lent him money to rent and furnish a studio, but later grew cold towards him and did not return a number of letters. In a letter to his brother Theo van Gogh dated 7 May 1882, van Gogh describes "a very regrettable conversation" in which Mauve told him their association was "over and done with" adding by way of explanation that van Gogh had a vicious character. Van Gogh continued his letter by expressing his sorrow, and then launches defiantly into a passionate defence of his relationship with Clasina "Sien" Maria Hornik (Sien), a pregnant prostitute he had befriended. The presumption must be that Mauve had heard of the relationship (although van Gogh's letter does not say so expressly) and broke off the association because of it. However, their relationship had already become strained by late January. Nevertheless, van Gogh continued to hold Mauve in very high esteem and dedicated one of his most iconic paintings to Mauve's memory after hearing of his sudden death. Mauve's mother Elisabeth Margaretha Hirschig was a first cousin twice removed of Anton Hirschig, the young Dutch artist who was a fellow lodger with van Gogh at the Auberge Ravoux at the time of van Gogh's death.

Selected works

Anton Mauve - Landscape with Cattle - Google Art Project

*''Entering the Fold'' (c. 1885–8), drawing and watercolour, Tate Gallery *''Milking Time'' (c. 1875), oil on canvas,

National Gallery The National Gallery is an art museum in Trafalgar Square in the City of Westminster, in Central London, England. Founded in 1824, it houses a collection of more than 2,300 paintings dating from the mid-13th century to 1900. The current di ...

*''Landscape with cattle'', chalk on paper,

Courtauld Institute of Art The Courtauld Institute of Art (), commonly referred to as The Courtauld, is a self-governing college of the University of London specialising in the study of the history of art and conservation. The art collection is known particularly for ...

*''Landscape with Cattle'', oil on canvas,

Museum of Fine Arts, Houston The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH), is an art museum located in the Houston Museum District of Houston, Texas. The permanent collection of the museum spans more than 5,000 years of history with nearly 80,000 works from six continents. Follo ...

*''Shepherdess'', oil on canvas,

National Museum of Wales National may refer to: Common uses * Nation or country ** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen Places in the United States * National, Maryland, c ...

*''Morning Ride along the Beach'' (1876), oil on canvas,

Rijksmuseum Amsterdam The Rijksmuseum () is the national museum of the Netherlands dedicated to Dutch arts and history and is located in Amsterdam. The museum is located at the Museumplein, Museum Square in the stadsdeel, borough of Amsterdam-Zuid, Amsterdam South, ...

*''Riders in the Snow in the Haagse Bos'' (1879), watercolour and gouache, Rijksmuseum

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the City Re ...

*''De Torenlaan te Laren'' (1886), oil on canvas, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam *''Ariëtte Carbentus, wife of the artist, sitting in the dunes'' (c. 1876), oil on canvas, Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie, The Hague (private collection) *''Gathering Seaweed'', oil on canvas,

Musée d'Orsay The Musée d'Orsay ( , , ) () is a museum in Paris, France, on the Rive Gauche, Left Bank of the Seine. It is housed in the former Gare d'Orsay, a Beaux-Arts architecture, Beaux-Arts railway station built from 1898 to 1900. The museum holds mai ...

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*''Changing Pasture'' (c. 1880s), oil on canvas,

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art, colloquially referred to as the Met, is an Encyclopedic museum, encyclopedic art museum in New York City. By floor area, it is the List of largest museums, third-largest museum in the world and the List of larg ...

, New York *''The Return of the Flock, Laren'' (c. 1886 -1887), oil on canvas,

Philadelphia Museum of Art The Philadelphia Museum of Art (PMA) is an List of art museums#North America, art museum originally chartered in 1876 for the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. The main museum building was completed in 1928 on Fairmount, a hill located at ...

, Philadelphia *''Digging up a Tree'', watercolor,

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston The Museum of Fine Arts (often abbreviated as MFA Boston or MFA) is an art museum in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the list of largest art museums, 20th-largest art museum in the world, measured by public gallery area. It contains 8,161 painting ...

*''Returning Home'', oil on wood,

Art Gallery of New South Wales The Art Gallery of New South Wales (AGNSW), founded as the New South Wales Academy of Art in 1872 and known as the National Art Gallery of New South Wales between 1883 and 1958, is located in The Domain, Sydney, Australia. It is the most import ...

*''A Shepherdess and Her Flock'', oil on canvas,

Bibliography

* Dorn, Roland, Schröder, Klaus Albrecht & Sillevis, John, ed.: ''Van Gogh und die Haager Schule'' (exh. cat. Kunstforum, Wien 1996), Skira, Milan 1996
Engel, E. P. "Anton Mauve". Academische Uitgeverij Haentjens Dekker & Gumbert, 1967 (University of Michigan)
* Naifeh, Steven; Smith, Gregory White. Van Gogh: The Life. Profile Books, 2011. * Tralbaut, Marc Edo. ''Vincent van Gogh, le mal aimé''. Edita, Lausanne (French) & Macmillan, London 1969 (English); reissued by Macmillan, 1974 and by Alpine Fine Art Collections, 1981. .

References

External links