Jozef Israëls

“many free images of the art of Jozef Israëls, in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam”

“Biographical information, life facts and dates of Jozef Israëls, in the Dutch R.K.D. Archive”

“Next morning [after J.W. Bilders had visited Israëls and thought his recent painting was 'somewhat gray'. he got up early to put the whole painting in the soap from top to bottom and after breakfast after the walk he was still picking up the work a bit; then the painting was good. (translation from the original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek)”

“Those miraculous delicate interior-atmospheres of Israëls, that transparently tissue of air and light, dissolving itself apart from all solid colors... and the slightly nebula, both in the house and outdoors, the grayness that is just feeling, the melancholy that is just tenderness.. ..the painter of the covered light, which barely breaks through.. ..but only floats.. ..through the houses full of care and nostalgia or lights up in the staring eyes of weary toilers, men or women.. (translation from the original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek)”

“The exquisite work of art of this master is painted in a truly mysterious way, only by the nervous ability of that unlearned hand; with messy darking licks and scratchy sweeps of paint, creating a wonderful mixture of sharp relief and decaying confusion.. .Rough and soft, rottenness and suppleness, filthiness and purity conjure up a grandiose depth of life with [the works of] Israëls. (translation from the original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek)”

“Israels, and his friend and follower (yet powerful artist on his own account) Blommers, have painted them under every possible condition: cottage Madonnas, [cottage] breakfasts, [cottage] dinners, feeding baby, and all the ages of motherhood and childhood are there. For years Israels had in his studio the interior of a peasant's cottage erected as a model, and his Reveries, Weary Watchers, and kindred subjects have come therefrom.”

“This double effect of treating the light inside the room ànd outside is very characteristic of Israels, and it has not been treated in this natural way by anyone before him. Yet natural as it seems, it has a magic power; for it carries our thoughts out of ourselves, out through the window in the walls that shut us in, and we dream as we gaze away into the far beyond.”

“But one morning when the model for the painting ['Nothing More / Alone'] had been ordered, the man was sitting, waiting in the studio. When Israel came in, he saw him sitting, drowsing with his hands on his knees, the figure in shade, while the light from the window [in the studio] was dominating the scene. He understood that in this way the actual mystery, the real affection of the scene, became infinitely stronger, and so he painted his work and so it remained. (translation from the original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek)”

“[Jozef] Israels first became himself [as an artist] at an age when most painters have already delivered their best work, and if he had been so unlucky to dy at the age of forty, Holland would have counted one of his best sons less.”

“So whoever thinks it is fortunate to be known in large circles, can say that in his artist career, Mr. Israëls had the fortune to become famous with works of transient importance - and later with paintings of inestimable value he more than deserved his already acquired fame. (translation from the original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek)”

“It should not be denied that Impressionism went beyond [Jozef] Israëls. Where would he be - Israëls, if Manet could have influenced him? Isn't it in his one-sidedness to Impressionism that we find the proof for the power of his conviction? (translation from the original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek)”

“Kann.. ..took me to the painter Israëls yesterday [in The Hague]. A small, quick, wise old little jew. He was just busy painting a harp-playing 'David and Saul. I explained Zionism and won him. He thought the idea was beautiful.”

“Who would ever forget the sensation that once gave us [in 1884] the tremendous cold of the old woman [ in the painting 'Als men oud wordt', 1883 ].. ..[at] an almost burnt-out fire,. .What an expression in those hands.. .And what a masterpiece is that old cape.. (translation from the original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek)”

“The beautiful, spontaneous Israels, that is the painter when he is in his own studio; that is the talker who sometimes goes outside for a moment, as when he was walking beside me in the woods, before dinner: 'You cannot know at all what will comes out of you because all your knowledge is running otherwise.. (translation from the original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek)”

“What a pleasure is it to see such a 'Frans Hals' [because the painter Frans Hals was also painting in a loose brush-technique] - it is completely different from the paintings - there are so many of them - where everything has been smoothed out in the same painstaking way.. ..[Jozef] Israëls has a much healthier and more solid technique, like in that very old canvas [1856!] 'De visser van Zandvoort' with beautiful clair-obscure, then the technique of those who are at every spot equally smooth, flat and distinguished, because of their view, cold- colored..”

“That exploitation of the dejection [in Israëls' works], that celebration of sickbeds and deathbeds is mannerism [and] avoiding uplifting subjects.. ..he has to come back from that. (translation from the original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek)”

“The great master presents us here [in the painting, 'When one grows old', 1883] an uncomfortable, life-size woman who reminds me strongly of a frightening magic cow. The lines that this figure makes are as inconspicuous as possible, and in the chaos of enigmatic licks and smears one discovers here and there a genuine Israëls-like hue. (translation from the original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek)”

“The boss [her husband] is hard working, busy with a very beautiful painting ‘from darkness into light', a woman sitting on a chair with her hand in front of the face, a little love is lying innocent in the cradle, a child of about six years is sitting on her lap with the head on mother's knee; the corpse of the father is carried out by a sad flock of people; one can see the sky and the spire [through the doorway], it is 'touching' (translation from the original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek)”

“Is there a difference between a Jewish sea and a non-Jewish sea? What is a Jewish way of painting? (translation from Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek)”

“As I hear, you are the possessors of one of my favorite paintings 'The children on the beach' and I can tell you that few pictures by me, have so much figures, busy in the subject. Therefore I mean that this picture is an unicum and I hope you will give it a good light and place in your gallery.”