MAUVE, Anton

Dutch painter. He came from a large family of clergymen in the province of North Holland. At the age of 16 he was apprenticed to the animal painter Pieter Frederik van Os (1808-1892): animals (especially sheep, but also cows and horses) became Mauve’s preferred theme. He then trained for a few months with Wouterus Verschuur (1812-1874), who gave him his love of horses, in the style, at least, of Paulus Potter and Philips Wouwerman. Initially Mauve painted primarily horses. In his further development he worked with Paul Gabriël, painting from nature, and they regularly stayed and worked together at Oosterbeek, the ‘Dutch Barbizon’. He was a friend of Jozef Israëls and Willem Maris.

In 1872 Mauve settled in The Hague 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.

Mauve was married to Vincent van Gogh’s cousin Ariëtte (Jet) Sophia Jeannette Carbentus, and he was a major influence on van Gogh, who revered him. 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).

In the last two years of his life Mauve settled in the village of Laren in the region surrounding Hilversum called het Gooi. The group of painters who settled there, including Jozef Israëls and Albert Neuhuys, came to be known collectively as the Larense School and the region around het Gooi was dubbed ‘Mauve land’ as far afield as the United States.