Pad in een landschap 1848 - 1888

Anton Mauve made this drawing, "Pad in een landschap", with a pencil on paper. Mauve was a leading artist of the Hague School, a group that sought to represent everyday life with a naturalistic approach. This sketch might have been made *en plein air*, outside in the Dutch landscape. Here we see a quick impression of a path, perhaps in the dunes, under a brooding sky. The sketch emphasizes the artist's direct experience with the ordinary, and perhaps even the harshness of nature. At the time this was made, the art world was caught between academic traditions and new ideas about realism and impressionism. The Hague School artists turned away from historical painting towards depictions of the local and contemporary. This may seem apolitical, but choosing the mundane over the monumental was a progressive artistic statement. By looking at his work, alongside that of his contemporaries, and through archival research, we can better understand the dialogue between art and society in the Netherlands in the 19th century.