Paardentuig

About this artwork

…; on loan from Jean Charles Joseph Drucker (1862-1944, Montreux) and Maria Lydia Drucker-Fraser (1886-1944, Montreux), with 204 other drawings, to the museum, 1919;{Note RMA.} by whom bequeathed, with 204 other drawings, to the museum, 1944

Art Historical Context

Anton Mauve’s *Paardentuig* is a delicate pen drawing that captures the yet essential equipment of rural life in the Netherlands. Created during the artist’s lifetime (1838–1888), the work reflects Mauve’s deep interest in the countryside and its working animals. As a leading member of the Hague School, Mauve favored honest, unromanticized views of peasant labor, often focusing on horses, carts, and the quiet rhythms of farm work. Executed in pen on paper measuring 412 by 250 millimeters, the drawing demonstrates the artist’s economical yet line. Such studies allowed Mauve to record textures, shapes, and the play of light before translating them into his better-known paintings and watercolors. The sheet’s careful attention to straps, buckles, and leather details reveals both his observational skill and his respect for the tools that sustained agricultural communities. Acquired by the Rijksmuseum in 1944 as part of a generous bequest from the Drucker-Fraser collection, *Paardentuig* offers visitors an intimate glimpse into the preparatory practice of one of the Netherlands’ most admired nineteenth-century realists.

About the Artist

Anton Mauve · 1838–1888

Anton Mauve (1838–1888), born Anthonij Rudolf Mauve in Zaandam, Netherlands, hailed from a family of North Holland clergymen. At age 16, he apprenticed under animal painter Pieter Frederik van Os in Haarlem, mastering depictions of livestock, before studying briefly with Wouterus Verschuur, whose equine subjects instilled a lifelong affinity for horses. He honed his plein air technique alongside P...