Anton Mauve Dutch, 1838-1888

The Hague, Pulchri Studio, Tentoonstelling van schilderijen en teekeningen door Hollandsche meesters waarbij een belangrijk deel der Verzameling van wijlen J. Staats Frobes Esq. verzameld door A. Preyer, Kunsthandel, 1950, no. 90

Anton Mauve was born in Zaandam on 18 September 1838 as son of a Baptist pastor. His father was soon called to Haarlem and Anton Mauve spent his childhood in this town. His first years of apprenticeship were served with the animal painter P. F. van Os (1808-1892). His apprenticeship with the Romantic artist Wouterus Verschuur, who was known for his stable interiors and his finely painted horses, was much shorter. The great skill displayed by Mauve in depicting the anatomy of animals, especially in paintings and drawings of horses, traces back to his time with these two artists. In 1858, Mauve went to Oosterbeek for the first time, together with P. J. C. Gabriël. Oosterbeek was called the ‘Dutch Barbizon’ because young artists used to meet here, convinced that painting nature was the best way to bring about a change in the art of painting. In Oosterbeek, he became friends with Gerard Bilders and Willem Maris.

In 1874, Anton Mauve married Ariëtte Carbentus, Vincent van Gogh’s cousin. In that same year, he settled in The Hague where he became one of the most prominent members of the Hague School. In 1881 and 1882, he gave Vincent van Gogh some instruction, who partly under Mauve’s influence had decided to pursue an artistic career. In 1882, Mauve and Van Gogh split up, not so much because of artistic differences but mainly because of Mauve’s criticism on Van Gogh’s relation with his model Sientje Hoornik.

Besides being a talented painter, Mauve was also a competent aquarellist. In 1876, he was one of the founders of the Hollandsche Teeken-Maatschappij. Two years later, he was appointed “commissioner of art reviews” of the artistic society Pulchri Studio. Subsequently he held the position of treasurer. From 1882 onwards, he regularly visited Laren, often in the company of J. A. Neuhuys. He settled in Laren for good three years later, in the villa Ariëtta on the Naarderweg, Neuhuys becoming his neighbour. Mauve died unexpectedly during a family visit in Arnhem in 1888.

Mesdag, Mauve and Weissenbruch were the Hague School artists who pre-eminently chose the fishing life in Scheveningen as their subject, in particular the beaching of the so-called ‘bomschuiten’, which are the flat-bottomed boats that were pulled on the beach by horses before the fishing village had a harbour at its disposal. Mauve and Weissenbruch were the most gifted aquarellists from the circle of the Hague School. Mauve was also a co-founder of the Hollandsche Teeken-Maatschappij, the aquarellists department within the ranks of the artistic society Pulchri Studio. It was obvious that Mauve had been a student of the horse painter Wouterus Verschuur. He was able to portray the bearing of the decrepit horses that were used to beach the ‘bomschuiten’ like no other.

Both the Gemeentemuseum in The Hague and the Dordts Museum possess one version of a sizeable depiction in oil paint of ‘bomschuiten’ on the beach. In contrast to the normal composition of these paintings, Mauve took up a different viewpoint for this watercolour, namely with his back to the sea. The ‘bomschuiten’ are lying against a backdrop of the beach and dunes with the church tower of Scheveningen in the distance. The paintings Mauve made with this subject scored a great deal of success abroad. The 1874 version (Burrell collection, Glasgow) received an honourable mention at the Salon in Paris. The 1876 version was awarded a silver medal at the world exhibition in Philadelphia. The last version came into being in 1882. Vincent van Gogh, who was apprenticed to his cousin by marriage Anton Mauve, wrote in a letter to his brother Theo how Mauve laboured on this painting. He considered this painting to be a sermon on acquiescence, a somewhat strange statement that can only be understood when considering that both Vincent van Gogh and Anton Mauve were sons of pastors. Vincent wrote: “ Those nags, those poor battered nags, black, white, brown, are just standing there patiently, submitted, ready, resigned. They have to pull the heavy barge for just the last few metres in a while, the job is almost done. Stand still for a while. They pant, they are sweaty yet they do not grumble, they do not object, they do not complain about anything. They are over that, since many years. They have resigned to live and work some more and yet they are going to the flayer tomorrow, que soit, and they are willing” (letter 181). The watercolour exudes that same melancholic atmosphere which is so characteristic of the entire oeuvre of Mauve, one of the masters of the Hague School.