Friday 28 July 2023

Jozef Israëls - part 8

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 - 7 also.


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

n.d. The Seamstress
oil on canvas 68.5 x 54 cm

n.d. The Seamstress
engraving on vellum paper 52.3 x 40.4 cm (plate)
Art Institute of Chicago, IL

n.d. The Seamstress
oil on board 40 x 29 cm

n.d. The Seamstress
 oil on panel 36 x 16.5 cm

n.d. The Shoemaker
watercolour on paper 46.8 x 32 cm
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

n.d. The thinker (attributed to Jozef Israëls)
etching on paper 87 x 88 cm

n.d. The young mother
oil on canvas 41.3 x 62.2 cm
Detroit Institute of Arts, MI

n.d. Three Women Knitting by the Sea
oil on. canvas 59.6 x 80.6 cm

n.d. Tree group by a road
pencil and watercolour on paper 16.5 x  26 cm
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

n.d. Turning homewards
oil on canvas 45 x 58 cm
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

n.d. Two children wading
oil on panel40 x 27.9 cm

n.d. Two figures on a road
watercolour on paper 32.4 x 42.1 cm

n.d. Two figures wading
oil on panel 39.4 x 27.9 cm

n.d. Two girls in pink and white on the beach
pencil and watercolour on paper 23 x 12 cm
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

n.d. Two girls
pencil on paper 21.5 x 16.5 cm

n.d. Two studies of a working woman and a boy
pencil and ink on paper 21 x 13.1 cm
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

n.d. Two women working on the land
pencil and watercolour on paper 26 x 16.5 cm
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

n.d. Man and boy wading
oil on panel 40 x 27.9 cm

n.d. Woman and boy on a road
watercolour on paper 32.4 x 42.1 cm

n.d. Two girls in pink and white on the beach
pencil and watercolour on paper 23 x 12 cm
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

n.d. Two girls
pencil on paper 21.5 x 16.5 cm

n.d. Two studies of a working woman and a boy
pencil and ink on paper 21 x 13.1 cm
Rijksmueum, Amsterdam

n.d. Two women working on the land
pencil and watercolour on paper 26 x 16.5 cm
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

n.d. Unloading the catch
oil on canvas 43 x 70.5 cm

n.d. Untitled portrait
pencil/chalk? on paper 63 x 47 cm

n.d. Untitled
watercolour over graphite on paper, laid down on board
47 x 69.6 cm
Art Institute of Chicago, IL

n.d. Wading ashore
oil on panel 50 x 33.9 cm

n.d. Waiting woman with child
etching on paper 15.2 x 10 cm

n.d. Washing day
oil on canvas 39.5 x 56 cm

n.d. Watching the boats
oil on panel 40 x 32 cm

n.d. Watching the flock
oil on panel 29.8 x 42.6 cm
National Galleries of Scotland, UK
n.d. Woman by the fireplace
oil on canvas 70 x 50.5 cm

n.d. Woman by the fireplace
oil on canvas 92 x 60.5 cm


n.d. Woman and a cat
watercolour on paper 29 x 43 cm

n.d. Woman and baby
oil on canvas 58 x 84 cm

n.d. Woman and child in an interior
watercolour and gouache on paper 47.5 x 35 cm

n.d. Woman by the fireplace
oil on canvas 42 x 58 cm

n.d. Woman drinking tea
watercolour on paper mounted on board 45.1 x 54.6 cm

n.d. Woman in a field
oil on board  27 x 43 cm

n.d. Woman in a field
oil on board 28 x 43 cm

n.d. Woman sewing by the window
oil on board 49 x 43 cm

n.d. Woman knitting
oil on canvas 91.4 x 71.1 cm

n.d. Woman knitting
pencil and ink on paper 29.1 x 19 cm
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

n.d. Woman leaning on a horizontal wooden beam
pencil on paper (from sketchbook)
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

n.d. Woman preparing her dinner
oil on canvas mounted on panel 28 x 38.5 cm
© RMN-Grand Palais (Orsay Museum)

n.d. Woman reading
oil on panel 21 x 12.5 cm

n.d. Woman sewing
oil on panel 42.5  x 27.3 cm

n.d. Woman sitting in an armchair
charcoal heightened in white 38.1 x 30.4 cm

n.d. Woman asleep on a sofa
ink and chalk on paper 21 x 13.1 cm
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

n.d. Woman writing, and windmill studies
pencil and ink on paper 20.7 x 13.1 cm
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

n.d. Young girl
oil on canvas 41 x 30 cm

n.d. Young girl sewing
oil on canvas 58.4 x 84.5 cm
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA

n.d. Young woman by the sea
oil on board 26.7 x 26.9 cm

n.d. Young woman knitting
charcoal on paper 31 x 25 cm

n.d. Young woman with a dog
oil on panel 36 x 29 cm