Isaac Israels

Isaac trained at an early age in the studio of his father, the internationally renowned painter Jozef Israëls. But Isaac wanted to follow his own artistic path. In order to establish a reputation separate from his father, he signed his works without an umlaut on the ‘e’ in his surname.

Israels regularly painted the beachgoers in Scheveningen with loose brushstrokes and bright colours. While his father Jozef portrayed the hardworking fisherfolk, Isaac preferred to paint the mondaine bathers who went to the seashore for recreation.

Israels wanted to record ephemeral moments from everyday life in his paintings. In order to capture the dynamism of a fleeting moment, he boldly cut off the picture plane. The result resembles a snapshot, with the figure seemingly moving on beyond the frame.

In Amsterdam Israels spent a lot of time with George Hendrik Breitner. Both artists captured their impressions of fleeting moments of city life with smooth brushwork, earning them the name ‘Amsterdam Impressionists.’

There was a fraught combination of mutual admiration and competition between Israels and Breitner. When, in 1892, Israels stood in front of a Breitner townscape in the window of an Amsterdam art gallery, he stated: ‘[...] I’ve had it, you can’t compete with such work.’ Conversely, Breitner, too, had to enviously look on as the seven-year younger Israels surpassed him at times.

Israels felt at home in Paris. Already as a child he and his family visited the Salon, the annual exhibition of the work of living artists. When he later moved there, he painted scenes of urban leisurely pursuits, such as this gathering of elegant young Parisians in the Bois de Boulogne.

In Paris Israels became acquainted with the work of Édouard Manet and Edgar Degas, among others. He was one of the few Dutch painters to adopt the bright palette of the French Impressionists. And just like them he favoured subjects related to modern life, such as this street scene with an electrically lit shop window – a novelty at the end of the 19th century.

Israels was fascinated by the flourishing fashion industry and the luxuriously decorated boutiques. With help from the artist Thérèse Schwartze, he made contact with the head of Hirsch, then Amsterdam’s leading haute couture fashion house, around 1900. He received special permission to work in the sewing ateliers and at fashion shows and captured the seamstresses, mannequins and clients in countless drawings and paintings.

Israels took part in both the French and Dutch nightlife of the belle époque. Following in the footsteps of the French artists Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and Théophile Steinlen, Israels turned his attention to people dancing. He rendered the women with their broad hats and the dancing couples in a coarse technique, as in this drawing.

Isaac’s wanderlust took him far beyond the borders of Europe. He spent almost a year on Java and Bali and became enchanted by the Javanese (martial) dances, Chinese weddings and gamelan orchestras he saw there. He filled sketchbooks with drawings, which he later developed into paintings.