Landscape with Women Working in a Field; verso: Sketch of Landscape with Person on a Path 1838 - 1888

Anton Mauve produced this sketch in the late nineteenth century on a sheet of paper now held at the Metropolitan Museum. In an art world dominated by the Paris Salon, landscape painters like Mauve were seeking an alternative way to represent the world around them. Mauve was part of the Hague School, a group of Dutch artists who reacted against the rigid academic style of the time. They wanted to paint the everyday life of the Netherlands, focusing on rural scenes and working-class people. The rise of industrialization and urbanization in the late 19th century was transforming Dutch society, and these artists sought to capture a sense of the traditional way of life that was disappearing. This sketch is important because it helps us understand how artists like Mauve were developing a new, more naturalistic style of painting. By studying sketches like this, alongside letters and other documents, we can start to understand the social and institutional forces that shaped the art world of the time.