Boys herding donkeys

Donkeys accompanied by herdboys are found only occasionally in Hague School paintings; Anton Mauve painted several attractive works with seaside donkeys and Johannes de Haas made a number of donkey studies in Picardy. Judging from the wide river landscape in this painting, Willem Maris found his inspiration in Germany. It is the only work that recalls his visit there with Blommers. The 1962 catalogue of the Haags Gemeentemuseum suggests that the painting represents a Norwegian subject, but this is incorrect since it is clearly dated 1865 and Maris did not go to Norway until 1871. The detailed rendering of the grass in the foreground anticipates his later interest in the vegetation along ditches. In the print collection of the Gemeentemuseum Den Haag there is a sheet with composition sketches for this work. Some related works, with the same donkeys and boys in a Scheveningen setting, are also known ; they were exhibited in 1866 and I867 in Brussels, Antwerp and Rotterdam. Although Isaac Israels made the theme of donkey rides very popular later in the nineteenth century, Willem Maris never returned to it in any later paintings.

Source: R. de Leeuw, J. Sillevis, Ch. Dumas (eds.), The Hague School: Dutch masters of the 19th century, The Hague 1983