DOI issue:
No. 175 (October, 1907)
DOI article:Rutter, Frank: A consideration of the work of Anton Mauve
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.20776#0038
Anton Mauve
is impeccable and impossible to improve upon :— right. It is more likely to add to their number. We
" His draughtsmanship is sound, his brush work may be sure that Mauve's best water-colours were
full of gusto and expression, his colour quite his done with consummate swiftness ; his worst those on
own : to a right sense of nature and a mastery of which he spent most time, endeavouring to retrieve
certain atmospheric effects he unites a genuine with Chinese white the virgin paper he had soiled
strain of poetry. . . . His treatment of animals by error. But his use of white is sparing, and the
is at once judicious and affectionate. He is reproductions of the lovely works given in these
careful to render them in relation to their aerial pages amply testify to the purity of his practice,
surroundings ; but he has recognised that they too The unerring touches show, not careless haste, but
are creatures of character and sentiment, and he esay, well-ordered speed. And it is this very speed
loves to paint them in their relations to each other which makes them, as Muther says, " so vivid and
and to man. The sentiment is never forced, the spontaneous ;" and it is because he had more
characterisation is never strained, the drama is " time to do himself justice " in his oils, that even the
never exorbitant; the proportions in which they best of them cannot escape looking a little more
are introduced are so nicely adjusted that the laboured and so leading many excellent judges to
pictorial, the purely artistic quality of the work is see in his water-colours Mauve's highest achieve-
undiminished. To Troyon animals were objects in ments. Frank Rutter.
a landscape; to Mauve they were that
and something more. His old horses
are their old masters' friends; his
cows are used to the girls who tend
them; his sheep feed as though they
liked it. In a word, his use of the
dramatic element is primarily artistic;
and it is with something of a. blush
that one compares his savoir faire
with the bad manners of some
animal painters nearer home."
I wish Henley had ended here ;
butsincehegoesonoccultlyto remark
that Mauve "painted water-colours
with so ready a brush that, as often
as not, he has no time to do himself
justice," I have no option but to
sling a pebble at the Scottish giant.
Does he mean that Mauve's water-
colours are inferior to his oil paint-
ings ? The position is wholly unten-
able. Is it that some water-colours
are better than others ? Why, so
are some oils; the remark is irrele-
vant. No, the insinuation is of care-
less speed—"no time to do himself
justice." But surely if there is one
thing which "if't were done, 't were
well done quickly," it is a water-
colour. It is essentially a sketching
medium, and its highest charm
is inevitably troubled by much
labour. A water-colour cannot but
gain by speed if it be done aright;
and if the first touches are wrong it
is better to make a fresh start, forno „ , „„ , „„ ,..„„„
"THREE COWS (WATER-COLOU R) BY ANTON MAUVE
overlaying will make the old faults (By permission of Messrs. At. Knoedler &> Co.)
16
is impeccable and impossible to improve upon :— right. It is more likely to add to their number. We
" His draughtsmanship is sound, his brush work may be sure that Mauve's best water-colours were
full of gusto and expression, his colour quite his done with consummate swiftness ; his worst those on
own : to a right sense of nature and a mastery of which he spent most time, endeavouring to retrieve
certain atmospheric effects he unites a genuine with Chinese white the virgin paper he had soiled
strain of poetry. . . . His treatment of animals by error. But his use of white is sparing, and the
is at once judicious and affectionate. He is reproductions of the lovely works given in these
careful to render them in relation to their aerial pages amply testify to the purity of his practice,
surroundings ; but he has recognised that they too The unerring touches show, not careless haste, but
are creatures of character and sentiment, and he esay, well-ordered speed. And it is this very speed
loves to paint them in their relations to each other which makes them, as Muther says, " so vivid and
and to man. The sentiment is never forced, the spontaneous ;" and it is because he had more
characterisation is never strained, the drama is " time to do himself justice " in his oils, that even the
never exorbitant; the proportions in which they best of them cannot escape looking a little more
are introduced are so nicely adjusted that the laboured and so leading many excellent judges to
pictorial, the purely artistic quality of the work is see in his water-colours Mauve's highest achieve-
undiminished. To Troyon animals were objects in ments. Frank Rutter.
a landscape; to Mauve they were that
and something more. His old horses
are their old masters' friends; his
cows are used to the girls who tend
them; his sheep feed as though they
liked it. In a word, his use of the
dramatic element is primarily artistic;
and it is with something of a. blush
that one compares his savoir faire
with the bad manners of some
animal painters nearer home."
I wish Henley had ended here ;
butsincehegoesonoccultlyto remark
that Mauve "painted water-colours
with so ready a brush that, as often
as not, he has no time to do himself
justice," I have no option but to
sling a pebble at the Scottish giant.
Does he mean that Mauve's water-
colours are inferior to his oil paint-
ings ? The position is wholly unten-
able. Is it that some water-colours
are better than others ? Why, so
are some oils; the remark is irrele-
vant. No, the insinuation is of care-
less speed—"no time to do himself
justice." But surely if there is one
thing which "if't were done, 't were
well done quickly," it is a water-
colour. It is essentially a sketching
medium, and its highest charm
is inevitably troubled by much
labour. A water-colour cannot but
gain by speed if it be done aright;
and if the first touches are wrong it
is better to make a fresh start, forno „ , „„ , „„ ,..„„„
"THREE COWS (WATER-COLOU R) BY ANTON MAUVE
overlaying will make the old faults (By permission of Messrs. At. Knoedler &> Co.)
16