Anton Mauve

Mauve had produced during the thirty years of his working period an immense quantity of pictures, drawings in water-colour and some in black-and-white, mostly in a very genial and sympathetic art, which a very small part only is to be found in Holland. His popularity in Great Britain and America may be ascribed to his eminently Anglo-Saxon character, the Dutch for the most part being of the same origin as the British. The poetry of Mauve's art, its tenderness, the unobtrusive, quiet sadness of the scenery and people which attracted him most; the homeliness, humour and domestic happiness which he interpreted in his interiors and scenes of country and village life, can only be fully appreciated by people of the same descent.

In 1881, at an evening exhibition ("Kunstbeschouwing") of the "Pulchri Studio," I saw for the first time an eminently characteristic water-colour, representing a timber auction in a wood-growing part of the country. The notary, the auctioneer, the farmers, labourers, village carpenters, and tradesmen inspect with seemingly indifferent but critical attitudes the lots and single trunks for sale. Most of the actors and spectators are seen from behind, but the drawing is so expressive that the quiet characteristic scene conveys to the full a significance of rustic shrewdness and diplomacy. Every type of character is expressed with the most delightful accuracy, with that rich fund of humour of which Mauve was the happy possessor.

This work is now in the collection of Mr. Mesdag. Mauve, when in a genial vein, made an excellent raconteur. His quiet gestures and the sober mimicry of his face were irresistible. In his work he painted often such types of personality of which he thought a little fun could be made in a quiet, harmless way. So the painter had a great deal of the actor in him. His gardeners, wood-cutters, labourers, shepherds were always remarkable for their complete individuality. Mauve rarely introduced a human figure merely to exhibit some plastic beauty in the ordinary acceptation of the expression. I can only recall one instance, where a country girl in light blue dress is gathering beans in a kitchen garden. Here our artist attained that ideal beauty of line and attitude in the expression of which Albert Neuhliys excels. The drawing was simply exquisite in the harmony of light blue, green and grey tints which it revealed.

I think the painter is best known all over the world by his flocks of sheep, depicted at all seasons and in every kind of weather, and under every condition of light and air; by his sheep in the folds and by his cows in "de Melkbocht"; * also by his horses ploughing or at rest. Remarkable, too, are some of his coast scenes, showing the "pinks," or Dutch fishing-boats, about to be pulled over the sands by long teams of ill-fed looking horses.

Of Mauve's sheep pictures, the one which made the most lasting impression on my mind among many others belonging to the same style, was his magnificent painting first shown at The Hague Exhibition of 1881, depicting a small flock of sheep in the downs nibbling the scanty grass of the sandhills. The sheep were about eight inches long on the canvas and beautifully modelled and

* The paddock or reserved spot in the meadow where the cows are gathered for milking.