International studio (45.1912)

Josef Israels

squalid side of life often provided them with themes
—while his technique was essentially original.
Indeed the methods he adopted in order to
obtain his effects were as mysterious as they were
varied. Mr. Frederick Morton has truly said of
him that “ he worked by intuition, and groped
uncertainly, laboriously towards a desired end.
That end was invariably attained, but its attainment
was due not so much to the man’s comprehension
and mastery of the means at the disposal of the
painter, as to his devotion to a purpose and his
willingness to struggle with a problem until he
had mastered it to his satisfaction.” When at
work his subject seemed to absorb him and his
energy and enthusiasm were unbounded.
“An artist must possess two qualities,” Israels
once said to the writer, “sentiment and the power to
paint. One is of no use without the other, though
the greater of these is sentiment, for an artist
cannot successfully paint a subject which does not
possess his sentiment. The sea, for instance, will
form the sentiment of one painter, and his pictures
will appeal to any one possessing that same
sentiment.” A careful consideration will convince
one of the truth of this interesting assertion,
interesting because it gives a clue to one of the
chief causes of Israels’ success as a painter and
his world-wide popularity. In most of his im-
portant canvases human sentiment is the under-
lying force which, in its direct appeal to the
emotions, has given him a remarkable hold on his

public. In his conception of humble life he saw
beauty in all its phases, in its- poverty, privation
and sorrow as well as in its joys; and that he
should select as a theme for the majority of his
works the pathetic side is but a proof of his intense
human sympathy. The lot of those born to suffer
at the hand of fate touched him profoundly, and in
portraying their sorrows he gave evidence of his
unaffected sincerity.
Reference to Israels’ essays in portraiture has so
far been avoided for two reasons. First, because
the majority of his portraits were executed during
the earlier part of his career, while we are
concerned here more particularly with the pro-
ductions of his maturity ; and secondly, because this
phase of his art was dealt with a few months ago
in these pages in an article by Professor Max Eisler
on “ Modern Dutch Portrait Painting.” * The
fact that Israels painted quite a number of portraits
is little known outside his own country, though his
earliest efforts were entirely confined to this class
of work. It should be remembered, too, .that
during his training under Kruse man he had every
inducement to develop in this direction, for
Kruseman was one of the most popular portrait-
painters of his day in Holland. It is to his credit
that he encouraged his pupil to study the works of
the Old Masters ; and Israels’ early impressions of
the portraits of Rembrandt, Van Dyck, Franz Hals,
and Van der Heist, related in the article mentioned,
* The Studio, March 1911.


“ POTATO GATHERERS

FROM THE OIL PAINTING BY JOSEF ISRAELS
(By permission of Mr. A. Preyer)

JOI