The Return to the Fold

Not on view
Mauve was a leading member of the Hague school, the Dutch counterpart to the Barbizon school of painters in France. He painted everyday subjects drawn from his local landscape in southwest Holland. This work depicts one of Mauve’s favorite and most popular subjects, a shepherd and his flock. Prices varied depending on whether the picture featured "sheep coming," or, as here, the slightly less expensive "sheep going." Vincent van Gogh, who was the cousin of Mauve’s wife, studied with Mauve in the winter of 1881–82, and admired him as "a great interpreter of the fine gray Dutch countryside."

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: The Return to the Fold
  • Artist: Anton Mauve (Dutch, Zaandam 1838–1888 Arnhem)
  • Medium: Oil on canvas
  • Dimensions: 19 3/4 x 33 7/8 in. (50.2 x 86 cm)
  • Classification: Paintings
  • Credit Line: Bequest of Benjamin Altman, 1913
  • Object Number: 14.40.816
  • Curatorial Department: European Paintings

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