DOI Heft:
No. 216 (March, 1911)
DOI Artikel:Eisler, Max: Modern Dutch portrait painting, with special reference to the work of Josef Israels
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.20972#0128
Modern Dutch Portrait Pc
M
ODERN DUTCH PORTRAIT L. Schaap, his future wife's grandfather—a
PAINTING, WITH SPECIAL drawing which figured in the exhibition of
REFERENCE TO THE WORK Israels' works at Amsterdam in 1894; shortly
OF JOSEF ISRAELS. BY afterwards he did a life-sized study in colour
PROF. MAX EISLER. 01 a Jew hawker. The fact should never be
lost sight of that the earliest works of his now
In its general aspects practically nothing is extant are without exception portraits,
known about the art of portrait painting in The innate tendency displayed by Israels as
Holland from the middle of the nineteenth a youth was reinforced by his education. With
century. This ignorance is due not to any this the names of J. W. Pieneman and J. A.
demerits of the work accomplished in this Kruseman are inseparably bound up, and as
field, but chiefly to the fact that the subjects both of these were the leading portrait-painters
are for the most part unknown to the world of Holland during the first half of the 19th
at large, and even at home are far from being century, Israels' own development as a portrait-
familiar to the public. In this way is to be painter forms an organic link with tradition, and
explained the lack of a comprehensive pre- likewise carries one naturally forward to the
sentation of the cardinal traits which have moderns, Jan Veth and Therese Schwartze.
manifested themselves
in this branch of art;
and as a particular in-
stance the work of Josef
Israels may be cited, for
this artist, who as a
master of the Interior"
genre and as a painter of
fisherfolk was admired
in England as long ago
as 1862, has been
scarcely known at all as
a portrait-painter. And
yet his pre-eminent gifts
in this province can-
not be passed over in
any consideration of his
career.
Israels' first inclina-
tions and his earliest
■essays in painting were
consecrated to por-
traiture; until his 21st
year his training was
directed by portrait-
painters exclusively, and
their influence was para-
mount. In his father's
house the lad's keen eye
took note of the sharp-
cut Jewish features of
the household and its
circle of friends, and, as
he has himself told me,
he used constantly to
sketch them. When 15
years old he did a "the woman at the window" by josef Israels
chalk portrait of Herr (Boymans Museum, Rotterdam)
• 106
M
ODERN DUTCH PORTRAIT L. Schaap, his future wife's grandfather—a
PAINTING, WITH SPECIAL drawing which figured in the exhibition of
REFERENCE TO THE WORK Israels' works at Amsterdam in 1894; shortly
OF JOSEF ISRAELS. BY afterwards he did a life-sized study in colour
PROF. MAX EISLER. 01 a Jew hawker. The fact should never be
lost sight of that the earliest works of his now
In its general aspects practically nothing is extant are without exception portraits,
known about the art of portrait painting in The innate tendency displayed by Israels as
Holland from the middle of the nineteenth a youth was reinforced by his education. With
century. This ignorance is due not to any this the names of J. W. Pieneman and J. A.
demerits of the work accomplished in this Kruseman are inseparably bound up, and as
field, but chiefly to the fact that the subjects both of these were the leading portrait-painters
are for the most part unknown to the world of Holland during the first half of the 19th
at large, and even at home are far from being century, Israels' own development as a portrait-
familiar to the public. In this way is to be painter forms an organic link with tradition, and
explained the lack of a comprehensive pre- likewise carries one naturally forward to the
sentation of the cardinal traits which have moderns, Jan Veth and Therese Schwartze.
manifested themselves
in this branch of art;
and as a particular in-
stance the work of Josef
Israels may be cited, for
this artist, who as a
master of the Interior"
genre and as a painter of
fisherfolk was admired
in England as long ago
as 1862, has been
scarcely known at all as
a portrait-painter. And
yet his pre-eminent gifts
in this province can-
not be passed over in
any consideration of his
career.
Israels' first inclina-
tions and his earliest
■essays in painting were
consecrated to por-
traiture; until his 21st
year his training was
directed by portrait-
painters exclusively, and
their influence was para-
mount. In his father's
house the lad's keen eye
took note of the sharp-
cut Jewish features of
the household and its
circle of friends, and, as
he has himself told me,
he used constantly to
sketch them. When 15
years old he did a "the woman at the window" by josef Israels
chalk portrait of Herr (Boymans Museum, Rotterdam)
• 106