Bomen in de wind aan een waterkant 1848 - 1888

Anton Mauve created this sketch, "Trees in the Wind on a Waterfront," with a pencil on paper. Mauve painted during a time of shifting social values in the Netherlands. The art world was still dominated by academic styles and the traditional subject matter of history painting. However, there was growing interest in Realism and in representing the lives of ordinary people and the landscapes they inhabited. The Hague School, to which Mauve belonged, aimed to capture the atmosphere and mood of the Dutch landscape, often focusing on the effects of light and weather. Mauve’s sketches invite us to consider how artists use the landscape to comment on the social structures of their time. It's a reminder that art is contingent on its social and institutional context. To more fully understand it, we might study the history of the Hague School, the art market in the Netherlands, and critical reception of landscape painting.