Shepherd and Sheep

A shepherd leans against a slender birch tree, watching over his flock as they graze across a grassy hillside. His blue coat and dark hat stand out against the muted greens and browns of the field, and a walking staff rests nearby. In the far distance, on the left, you can just make out a small village with a church spire poking above the horizon, tucked beneath a wide sky full of clouds.

Anton Mauve was a Dutch painter of the late nineteenth century and a leading name in the Hague School, a movement known for its down to earth scenes of rural and coastal life painted in a hazy, atmospheric range of grays and greens. Mauve loved subjects like this one, sheep and shepherds in open landscapes, and he painted them again and again. He also happened to be a cousin by marriage to Vincent van Gogh, and gave the younger artist some of his earliest lessons in painting. The loose brushwork in the grass and the blurred, weathered feel of the whole scene are typical of Mauve's approach, which favored mood and light over sharp detail.