Morning Ride on the Beach

Three riders make their way along the beach near Scheveningen, seen mostly from behind as their horses plod through the pale sand. Anton Mauve painted this scene in 1876, and it has become one of the best-loved works of the Hague School, a group of Dutch artists who found their subjects in ordinary life and the flat coastal landscape. The lone rider in the distance, the little bathing huts, and the wide expanse of grey sky and sea all give the picture a feeling of open air and slow movement. Mauve was less interested in telling a story than in catching a moment and a certain kind of light.

Look at the way he handles color here. Almost everything is worked out in soft greys, sandy browns, and muted blues, so the white horse and the dark clothing of the riders stand out as the only real contrasts. Mauve had a particular talent for painting horses and animals, and he worked outdoors often to study how weather changed the way things looked. He was also a cousin by marriage to Vincent van Gogh and gave the younger artist some of his first real lessons in painting. This beach scene shows exactly the kind of restraint and honesty that Van Gogh admired in him.