A.Mauve (XX) - Katwijkse boer met schep

According to Mauve, he was born in 1838 in Zaandam as the son of the Mennonite pastor Willem Carel Mauve (1803-1869) and Elisabeth Margaretha Hirschig (1805-1876), a niece of Antonius Hirschig, the grandfather of Anton Hirschig, who shared in the last days of Vincent van Gogh.[4] A year after his birth in Zaandam, the parental family moved to Haarlem, where his sister and later singer Susanna Pouwlina Mauve was born. There he grew up and also developed the wish to become a painter. From his father he received permission to pursue training as an artist, provided he would obtain the certificate for giving drawing instruction. The reason for this was that it would provide social security.