After Anton Mauve (1838-1888) Dutch, Watercolor Reproduction. Shows Mauve's "The Return to the Fold," signed "ELC after Mauve" bottom right. Framed. Paper attached to back. Framed.

Frame: 15 1/2 x 19 in. 

Sight: 6 x 9 3/4 in. 

#3738 . 

Anthonij “Anton” Rudolf Mauve was born on September 18th, 1838 in Zaandam, a town in the Dutch province of North Holland. A year after his birth his father Willem Carel Mauve, a Mennonite chaplain, was sent to Haarlem, the capital city of the province, where Mauve spent his youth. He was apprenticed to the painter Pieter Frederik van Os at an early age, followed by Wouter Verschuur and Paul Gabriël. He and Paul both preferred to paint from nature, and they regularly stayed and worked together at Oosterbeek, the “Dutch Barbizon.” He became friends with renowned Dutch landscape painters Jozef Israëls and Willem Maris and, encouraged by their example, abandoned his early highly-finished manner for a freer, looser method of painting. The brilliant multi-colored palette of his youthful works changed to a tender lyric harmony restricted to delicate grays, greens, and light blue. Most of Mauve’s work depicts people and animals in outdoor settings, sometimes with unconventional commitment to realistic details, including horse droppings and signs of decay in his works. In 1872 Mauve became a leading member of the Hague School of painters upon moving there. He was 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), a cousin of Vincent van Gogh, 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 along with Jozef Israëls and Albert Neuhuys, and they came to be known collectively as the Larense School and the region around the Gooi River was dubbed “Mauve Land” by numerous artists who came to study their technique and inspirations. Mauve died suddenly in Arnhem on February 5th, 1888. Although Mauve’s work fell out of favor during the World Wars, he was a major influence on van Gogh, who revered him and mentioned him, directly or indirectly, in 152 of his surviving letters. Van Gogh spent three weeks at Mauve’s studio at the end of 1881 and during that time made his first experiments in painting under Mauve’s tutelage, first in oils and then early the next year in watercolor. 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 for unknown reasons. In a letter to his brother Theo van Gogh dated May 7th, 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.” The discovery of his impact on van Gogh reignited interest in him and his career, with his works fetching tremendous prices at auctions in the later 20th Century.

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