Anton (Anthony) Mauve, born on 18 September 1838 at Zaandam, Dutch province of North Holland, baptized at Haarlem in November 1858, died on 5 February 1888 at Arnhem, was one of the best (if not the best) landscape painters in the Hague School, in which the finest traditions of the Old Dutch painting were brought to a new and fuller fruition under the influence of the impressionistic views of nature that had already produced in French art in the Barbizon School an era of rich and worthy revival. Mauve, as well as his equally gifted contemporary, P. J. C. Gabriel, kept himself rather aloof from the Romanticism characteristic of the Naturalism of the Hague School. His work is distinguished by its disciplined yet delicate portrayal, in the cool, luminous, yet tender and clear tone of his oils and water colors. The beauty of "het Gooi" and particularly that of the Laren landscape was in a sense discovered by Mauve.

It is probable that Mauve influenced Vincent van Gogh, who was a cousin of his wife (Colmjon, 45).
Many of Mauve's paintings are found in the Mesdag Museum; the reason for this is probably the fact that Mauve and H. W. Mesdag were close friends. The Rijksmuseum of Amsterdam also has a large collection. Mauve paintings are numerous in many European and even some American museums. Anton Mauve was the son of a Mennonite pastor, Willem Carel Mauve (1803-1869), who served the congregations at Enschede 1830-1836, Zaandam-Oost 1836-1839, and Haarlem 1839-1863; he was the author of a small catechism on Biblical history (Haarlem, 1846). He came into the Mennonite brotherhood from the Reformed Church.

Bibliography

Adapted by permission of Herald Press, Harrisonburg, Virginia, and Waterloo, Ontario, from Mennonite Encyclopedia, Vol. 3, p. 544. All rights reserved. For information on ordering the encyclopedia visit the Herald Press website.

©1996-2013 by the Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. All rights reserved.