Friday 21 July 2023

Jozef Israëls - part 5

1911 Invitation to an exhibition of Jozef Israëls' work

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 - 4 also.


This is part 5 of an 8-part series on the works of Jozef Israëls:


n.d. Girl sitting in a Garden
pencil and watercolour on paper 25.7 x 16.5 cm
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

n.d. Girl waiting beside the Sea
etching on paper 9.5 x 6 cm

n.d. Girl with Sheep in a Meadow
pencil and ink on paper 28.5 x 20.1 cm
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

n.d. Horse and Cart
pencil and ink on paper 28.3 x 20.1 cm
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

n.d. Homewards
oil on panel 30 x 45.5 cm

n.d. Homewards
oil on panel 28 x 20 cm

n.d. Homewards
etching on paper
(size not given)
Art Institute of Chicago, IL

n.d. Homewards
oil on canvas 32.2 x 41 cm

n.d. Homeward bound
watercolour on paper 21 x 36 cm

n.d. Homeward bound
watercolour and gouache on paper 27.5 x 18.5 cm

n.d. Head of a Girl
pencil on paper 30.6 x 20.8 cm
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

n.d. Harvesters setting out
watercolour on paper 72 x 54 cm

n.d. Harvest
oil on canvas 45 x 61 cm

n.d. Interior with woman and spinning wheel
watercolour on paper 33.6 x 48.9 cm

n.d. Interior with two musicians
oil on canvas 52 x 65 cm

n.d. Interior with mother and child
etching on paper 15.7 x 23.7 cm

n.d. Interior of the cottage "La Ravaudeuse"
oil on canvas 104 x 134 cm
© RMN-Grand Palais (Orsay Museum)

n.d. In the surf
oil on panel 42 x 28.5 cm

n.d. In the sick room
watercolour and gouache on paper 11 x 20.8 cm

n.d. In the dunes
chalk and watercolour on paper 17.7 x 32.2 cm

n.d. Katwijk old woman
etching on paper 13.5 x 9.7 cm

n.d. Katwijk old woman
etching on paper 15 x 10 cm

n.d. Kneeling girl by a tree
chalk on paper 29 x 19 cm
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

n.d. Knitting by the window
oil on canvas 89.5 x 113 cm

n.d. Landscape with a cow and a farmer
pencil and watercolour on paper 16.5 x 25.5 cm
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

n.d. Landscape with a stream
chalk and pen and ink on paper 21 x 13.2 cm
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

n.d. Landscape with a watermill
pencil and ink on paper 28.5 x 20.2 cm
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

n.d. Landscape with woman and roof of a house
pencil and watercolour on paper 12 x 23 cm
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

n.d. Little Jan
etching on paper 15 x 10 cm

n.d. Lunch
watercolour heightened with white
size not given

n.d. Man and woman in clearing between trees
pencil and watercolour on paper 12 x 23 cm
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

n.d. Man in a Tallit
watercolour and pen and ink on paper 39.5 x 30 cm

n.d. Man lighting a pipe
oil on board 40 x 29 cm

n.d. Man lighting his pipe
oil on panel 42 x 30.5 cm

n.d. Man with horse and carriage on the beach
watercolour on  paper 12 x 23 cm
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

n.d. Mater Dolorosa
oil on canvas 91.4 x 64.1 cm

n.d. Mending
oil on board 60.9 x 53.3 cm

n.d. Mending the nets
oil on panel 38.1 x 46 cm

n.d. Mending the nets
oil on panel 42.5 x 56 cm

n.d. Monk seated in a courtyard
oil on panel 20.3 x 14.6 cm

n.d. Mother and Child (attributed to Israëls)
pencil and chalk on paper 41.3 x 30.5 cm

n.d. Mother and Child by the Sea
oil on canvas 78.7 x 62.9 cm

n.d. Mother and child in the box bed and a standing girl
chalk on paper 29 x 26.6 cm
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

n.d. Mother and Child
oil on canvas 33 x 38.1 cm

n.d. Mother and child
pencil and watercolour on paper (from sketchbook)
Rijksmueum, Amsterdam

n.d. Mother and Child waiting for the Fleet
oil on canvas 50 x 64 cm

n.d. Mother and children
oil on board 34.3 x 50.8 cm

n.d. Mother and her Daughter
charcoal on paper 52 x 34 cm

n.d. Mother at the cradle
charcoal on paper 23 x 20 cm

n.d. Mother carrying her child
oil on panel 38.7 x 32.4 cm