Herder met een schaapskudde bij een groep bomen c. 1876 - 1888

Anton Mauve made this drawing of a shepherd with a flock of sheep near a group of trees with a pencil on paper. It's now part of the Rijksmuseum collection. Created in the Netherlands, this sketch could be a study for a larger painting, capturing a fleeting moment in the rural landscape. It reflects a broader 19th-century artistic interest in agrarian life, partly idealized as a counterpoint to industrialization. The Hague School, to which Mauve belonged, emphasized realism and the depiction of everyday scenes. The sketch invites us to consider the economic and social structures of the time, where agriculture still played a central role. Was Mauve commenting on these social structures? Was he presenting it in a conservative or progressive way? To understand Mauve's work more fully, we can look to historical sources, such as letters and exhibition reviews, to uncover the meaning of art as something contingent on social and institutional context.