ANTON MAUVE

Anton Mauve was born September 18th, 1838, at Zaandam, the small town in North Holland which has become well known in history by Czar Peter the Great's sojourn there to learn the craft of shipbuilding Mauve's father was a Protestant clergyman in this thriving little place; chiefly known now for its oil and paper-mills, and extensive timber trade. Auton was still very young when the worthy pastor was nominated clergyman at Haarlem, the capital of North Holland. When a boy, the future painter manifested a strong taste for drawing, but his father objected to his becoming an artist. A compromise, however, was effected between youthful ambition and parental prudence. If the son would consent to study for a diploma as drawing-master, which would insure him a livelihood in case he should fail as an artist, his father undertook to withdraw his opposition, and Anton would be permitted to follow his bent. This proved rather a bitter pill for the youngster, as he possessed certain personal opinions on the art of drawing, which were not at all those generally accepted by the brotherhood of the pencil. The young artist, almost in despair, once burst into tears, asserting that he would never learn to draw in the manner his masters thought it should be done. He entered the studio of the cattle painter. Van Os, but the master was by no means pleased with his young pupil, complaining that Mauve could never finish a subject. Not long after this apprenticeship Anton set himself to painting little pictures, which are sometimes met with at auctions. They show mostly the neat manner and conventional style of the period and of his former master. The original genius that was to come can scarcely be discerned.

Mauve's family was not rich, and when on a fine day the youth packed his knapsack to go to Oosterbeek for some time, it was with a purse as light as his heart. But the painter never was of the modern Bohemian type, who spends a fortune in luxurious eating and drinking and collecting bric-a-brac. So he felt quite happy in beautiful Oosterbeek (near Arnhem), at that time the Barbizon of Holland.

During the winter season Mauve settled in Amsterdam, where he worked hard and made a little money. But, of course, his art was not yet well paid. A favourite resort of the painter in summer-time was The Hague with Scheveningen. He once brought his luggage to a farmhouse near Dekkers-dinn, in the neighbourhood of Loosduiner, and lived there for a considerable time.

This is a fine spot with silvery downs bordered with bright grass, where small cows and sheep nibble their scanty pasture.

Here Mauve found some of his most important and favourite themes, such as poor cots built in or near the downs, where slender, poorly-nurtured women tended a few sheep or a goat, or occupied themselves in bleaching linen. His painting had not yet gained that transparency, and brilliancy of tone, which the artist acquired in subsequent years. At this time his work was grey but not always pellucid or silvery. Thus it came to pass that critics and public began to talk of "The Grey School," for a few other artists painted in the same neutral scale of tints. The farm, called "Kronenburg," still exists, but the quiet and picturesque environs of the rustic spot have been spoiled and desecrated by a steam tramway. The splendid downs have been levelled by all-encroaching "civilisation." At The Hague Mauve first met his wife, a gentle-minded, tender-hearted woman, belonging to a family very proficient in music. She was just the wife to be an angel in the home of an artist like Mauve, who at times could be moody and irritable, when under the influence of nervous troubles. He loved the naive ways of children, and his marriage was happily blessed with them. Artz, the brothers Maris, Ter Meulen, Tholen, Bastert and Tersteeg, were, amongst others, good friends of the family. He lived in a roomy house with fine garden on the "Zwarteweg," near the Wood, almost opposite the "Gebouw voor Kunsten en Wetenschappen" (Hall for Arts and Sciences), where he frequently attended the fine concerts given during the season. In 1873, when Mauve was suffering from one of his fits of dejection, he spent some weeks at Godesberg, on the German Rhine. It was very amusing to hear him talk about his residence there: "One could be so lazy and tranquil at Godesberg," he would say; "there was absolutely nothing to be seen or to be admired in nature, only a lot of chromos. What a treat it was to lie on a hill, to walk, to eat, to drink a glass of hock, to be lazy and get better!" Mauve was no admirer of nature in Germany, as few will be if accustomed to the more delicate and poetic tones of our Dutch landscape.

The beloved and admired artist is not dead. As we walk in the rural lanes beneath the slender birches wrapped in their mantle of silver-grey haze, or watch the chequered sunlight dancing into the secluded nooks of some emerald meadow, when we hear the echoes of the tinkling sheep bells on the moors, we think, "There lives Mauve!"

C. LOFFELT.

The Hague, February,1894