Meisje met een muts voor een venster c. 1876 - 1879

Anton Mauve made this pencil drawing of a girl in front of a window, likely around the 1870s in the Netherlands. Mauve was part of the Hague School, a group of Dutch artists who reacted against the academic style of art education in their time. Instead of history painting and formal portraiture, they focused on everyday scenes and landscapes. Here we see the girl's quiet contemplation, the intimacy between artist and model. The window is less a view onto the outside world and more a frame for inward reflection. The Hague School artists found ways to represent the experience of modern life. To understand this work, we might look to the writings of cultural historians and social critics who were influential in the Netherlands at this time. Mauve's sketch reminds us that art is always shaped by the social and intellectual currents of its day.