PROVENANCE
Sold sale of Waddington's, November 29, 1985, lot 1069
Private Collection, Toronto

BIBLIOGRAPHIE
Cornelia Homburg, The Treasures of Vincent van Gogh, 2007, pages 8 and 9
Vincent van Gogh, “193 – To Theo van Gogh. Etten, on or about Friday, 23 December 1881,” Vincent van Gogh: The Letters, http://www.vangoghletters.org/vg/letters/let193/letter.html#translation, accessed September 30, 2019

Please note: the inscription verso is that of Frank Worrall, a Toronto restorer who lined this painting in 1938.



Anton Mauve was a well-known member of The Hague School. He helped found the Dutch Drawing Society and was the secretary to the influential artists’ association, Pulchri Studio. By the mid-1880s his work was widely sought after by collectors in Holland and abroad. His paintings depicting flocks of sheep roaming the dunes and sandy paths around The Hague are recognized as the impetus for his success and legacy. Shepherd With His Flock, populated by a herd of sheep in a verdant countryside, is an apposite example of the artist’s favoured theme. Moreover, this work embodies the important qualities of The Hague School; "the motif of rural every-day living, cast in the grey, luminous atmosphere that characterized their country." The Philadelphia Museum of Art owns a similar work by Mauve, titled The Return of the Flock, Laren.

While Mauve is an important artist in his own right, he is also notable for his influence on Vincent van Gogh, his cousin through marriage. Mauve is credited with introducing Van Gogh to painting in the early 1880s. Mauve taught Van Gogh personally in 1881, introduced him to artists from The Hague School, and enabled him to attend free life-drawing sessions at Pulchri Studio. Mauve is mentioned in many letters between Van Gogh and his brother Theo. In a letter from December 1881, Van Gogh wrote, “Theo, what a great thing tone and colour are! And anyone who doesn’t acquire a feeling for it, how far removed from life he will remain! M. [Mauve] has taught me to see so many things I didn’t see before, and when I have the opportunity I’ll try and tell you about what he’s told me, because perhaps there are still one or two things that you don’t see properly either.”

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