Jozef Israëls - part 6

Jozef Israëls 1860s by Willem Frederik Vinkenbos
 albumen silver print
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Jozef Israëls, (1824 Groningen, Netherlands - 1911 The Hague), painter and etcher, often called the “Dutch Millet” (a reference to Jean-François Millet). Israëls was the leader of the Hague School of peasant genre painting, which flourished in the Netherlands between 1860 and 1900. He began his studies in Amsterdam and from 1845 to 1847 worked in Paris under the academic painters Horace Vernet and Paul Delaroche.

Israëls first tried to establish himself as a painter of Romantic portraits and conventional historical pictures but had achieved little success when in 1855 ill health compelled him to leave Amsterdam for the fishing village of Zandvoort, near Haarlem. That change of scenery revolutionised his art: he turned to realistic and compassionate portrayals of the Dutch peasantry and fisherfolk. In 1871 he moved to The Hague, and he often worked in nearby Scheveningen. 

Besides oils, Israëls worked in watercolours and was an etcher of the first rank. His later works in all media express a tragic sense of life and are generally treated in broad masses of light and shade. His painting style was influenced by Rembrandt’s later works, and, like Rembrandt, Israëls often painted the poor Jews of the Dutch ghettos. His son Isaac (1865–1934), also a painter, adopted an Impressionist technique and subject matter and had some influence on his father’s later work.

For more biographical information see part 1, and for earlier works see parts 1 - 5 also.

This is part 6 of an 8-part series on the works of Jozef Israëls:

n.d. Mother and baby
etching on paper 15 x 23 cm

n.d. Mother holding a child
pencil, charcoal and pastel on paper 29 x 41.7 cm

n.d. Mother's treasure
oil on canvas 55 x 90 cm

n.d. Motherhood
graphite on paper 37 x 30 cm

n.d. Mountain landscape with stream
pencil and watercolour on paper 26 x 16.7 cm
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

n.d. Mountains and valley
watercolour and chalk on paper 10.5 x 16 cm
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

n.d. Mowers
watercolour and chalk on paper 39 x 59.2 cm
Rijksmusesum, Amsterdam

n.d. Musicians
oil on canvas 52.5 x 67 cm

n.d. Net mender
etching on paper 19.2 x 27.3 cm

n.d. Old woman knitting
oil on canvas 40 x 29.5 cm

n.d. Old woman
oil on panel 24.5 x 16 cm

n.d. Old Man Seated in a Chair
black chalk on cream wove paper 46.5 x 29.6 cm
Art Institute of Chicago, IL

n.d. Old man reading
mixed media on paper 34 x 43.5 cm

n.d. Old man reading
etching on paper 14 x 18 cm

n.d. Old man reading
drypoint on paper 13.8 x 17.7 cm

n.d. Old man leaning on his stick
pencil and watercolour on paper 25 x 16 cm
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

n.d. Old Man
etching on paper 23.8 x 15.8 cm

n.d. On the Strand
oil on panel 30.5 x 22.9 cm

n.d. On mother's lap
oil on panel 43.9 x 33 cm

n.d. Pancake Day
oil on canvas 33 x 27.2 cm

n.d. Park with horseman
pencil and watercolour on paper 23 x 12 cm
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

n.d. Peasant woman nursing
etching on paper (size not given)
Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, MA
 © President and Fellows of Harvard College

n.d. Peeling apples by the window
watercolour on paper laid down on panel 38.4 x 27 cm

n.d. Peeling potatoes
etching on paper 19 x 27 cm

n.d. Pensive girl at dockside window
watercolour and pastel on paper 43.8 x 34.3 cm

n.d. Pipe smoking man
etching on paper 27.9 x 19.9 cm

n.d. Playing with a toy boat at the beach
pencil and watercolour on paper 18 x 11 cm

n.d. Portrait of a girl
pencil on paper 31 x 20.9 cm
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

n.d. Portrait of a girl with a bow in her hair
chalk on paper 30.2 x 20.7 cm
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

n.d. Portrait of a pipe smoker
oil on panel 33 x 25 cm

n.d. Portrait
oil on board 14 x 9 cm

n.d. Portrait of Aleida Schaap
etching on paper 9.8 x 6.8 cm

n.d. Portrait of Aleida Schaap
etching on paper 9.8 x 6.9 cm

n.d. Portrait of Aleida Schaap
etching on paper 12 x 7.7 cm

n.d. Portrait of an old fisherman
(attributed to Jozef Israëls)
oil on canvas 55 x 46 cm

n.d. Portrait of an Old Lady
(attributed to Jozef Israëls)
oil on canvas 61 x 51 cm

n.d. Portrait of an Old Man
(attributed to Israëls)
oil on canvas laid on panel 26.9 x 20.9 cm

n.d. Portrait of an old man
ink on paper 11.5 x 16.5 cm

n.d. Portrait of an old man
lithograph on paper 17 x 11 cm

n.d. Portrait of an old man
oil on canvas 39 x 35.5 cm

n.d. Portrait of Jan
etching on paper 17 x 11.5 cm

n.d. Portrait of Mr. Carel Vosmaer
chalk and ink on paper 34.3 x 25.1 cm
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

n.d. Portrait of Woman
 oil on panel 41 x 32 cm

n.d. Potato harvest
pastel and charcoal on paper 43.1 x71.7 cm

n.d. Portrait of a woman
oil on board 25 x 20 cm

n.d. Profile Bust of a Woman
black pastel, with stumping, on cream wove paper, laid down on board 31.4 x 24.3 cm
Art Institute of Chicago, IL

n.d. Rabbi
oil on board 25.8 x 17.5 cm

n.d. Rabbi praying
(attributed to Jozef Israëls)
oil on panel 24 x 17 cm

n.d. Rabbi reading by the window
 oil on canvas 36.7 x 29.8 cm