Isaac Israels

Woman in hat reading, a splendid watercolor, 20" x 14 ".
For sale in California on 06/02.

In 1865 Isaac was born as the son of the cultivated and sophisticated painter Jozef Israels. He appeared to be a child wonder, and shortly after the family settled in The Hague, Jozef sent his talented son to the Drawing Academy, but he was not a dedicated pupil, preferring to go his own way. Isaac Israels developed an interest in literature, travel and painting. Between 1878 and 1880 he studied at the academy in The Hague. His special talent was obvious from an early age. In 1881, when he was 16, he painted a picture which was purchased even before it was finished by the artist and collector Hendri Willem Mesdag.

Frederik van Eeden, writer and psychologist, adviced down-to-earth: ‘Do you really think that an outstanding artist like your son will be lost to us if he has to spend some of his youth brooding and searching for a direction in life?’. That search led Isaac to Amsterdam, where he developed into a painter of modern life, whose fluid brushstrokes earned him the nickname of ‘the Dutch impressionist’, with a swiftly painted realism.
On October 4, 1934, he was knocked down near his house by a motorcar and died a few days later.




























Literature:
Bodt, S., de A.O.,” Isaac Israels. Hollands impressionist“, Rotterdam, 1999.
Wagner, Anna, “Isaac Israels (Art and Architecture in The Netherlands)”.
Amsterdam,1969.


Photograph C.A.G.


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