Woman Carding Flax
Anton Mauve (1838 - 1888), c. 1885-1887
oil on canvas on panel, 43 cm x 32 cm
Credits: The Mesdag Collection, The Hague
Near the end of his life, Mauve moved to the Dutch town of Laren, a centre of textile production. This woman is combing the flax fibres to disentangle them. Once all the fibres are running in the same direction, they can be used for spinning.
Mauve's great inspiration was the French painter Jean-François Millet, who also painted intimate portraits of farmers like this one. A book about Millet's work published in 1880 had made him even more widely known and admired.
The woman is depicted in a sketchy manner. Hendrik Willem Mesdag, who loved art with this sketchy style, bought the painting around 1893.
- Object number
- hwm0212
- Dimensions
- 43 cm x 32 cm, 69 cm x 59 cm, 9 cm
- Provenance
- After the death of the artist on 5 February 1888, inherited by the artist’s widow Ariette Mauve-Carbentus, The Hague; sold by Ariette Mauve-Carbentus to Boussod, Valadon & Cie, The Hague for NLG 250, 7 July 1891; sold by Boussod, Valadon & Cie (no. 21565, Femme sérançant du lin) to Pulchri Studio, The Hague for NLG 427,50, 27 March 1894; sold by Pulchri Studio to Hendrik Willem Mesdag, The Hague for NLG 600 during the exhibition at Pulchri Studio, The Hague (Zevende Groepententoonstelling), cat. 6, 1894; Collection Museum Mesdag donated by Hendrik Willem Mesdag and Sientje Mesdag-van Houten to the State of the Netherlands, 14 May 1903; Rijksmuseum H.W. Mesdag, The Hague, from 1 August 1903; in trust of the Mauritshuis, The Hague, between 1934 and 1990; in trust of the Rijksmuseum Vincent van Gogh, Amsterdam, from 1 April 1990; Museum Mesdag, in trust of the Van Gogh Museum Foundation, Amsterdam, from 1 July 1994, under the name of De Mesdag Collectie from 2011.
- artist
- Anton Mauve
- Credits
- The Mesdag Collection, The Hague
The Hague, De Mesdag Collectie, Jean-François Millet en de Haagse School, 13 September 2019-5 January 2020
The Hague, De Mesdag Collectie, Nederlanders in Barbizon, 27 October 2017-7 January 2018
Laren, Singer Museum, Anton Mauve (1838-1888), 11 September 2009-18 January 2010
Suijver, Renske, Jean-François Millet and The Hague School, p. 14-15
Bodt, Saskia de, Plomp, Michiel, Cohen Tervaert, Renske, Chu, Petra ten-Doesschate, Anton Mauve (1838-1888), Bussum, 2009, p. 214
Bodt, Saskia de, Leeman, Fred, Leeuw, Ronald de, Pennock, Hanna, Museum Mesdag : catalogue of paintings and drawings, Zwolle, 1996, p. 292