Isaac Israels
If you're looking for calendars for the new year, we offer DailyArt 2020 wall and desk calendars that you can check out in our online shop! : )
We present today's painting thanks to our favorite Kröller-Müller Museum. : ) Until 19 January 2020 you can see Drawn from life. Works on paper 1850-1950, which features many seldomly exhibited drawings, pastels, and watercolors. The works provide an insight into life in the late 19th and early 20th century.
Isaac Israëls documened his impressions of Amsterdam, London, Paris, and countless other places around the world in thousands of sketches, watercolors, and drawings. Helene Kröller-Müller admired his keen observation and ability to capture the essence of a subject rapidly. "You should not persist with things too long, as then you develop an aversion to them," according to Isaac Israels. In addition to a series of paintings, Helene purchased over 200 drawings from him.
Life on the street, in cafés, at variety shows, and in fashion houses were inexhaustible sources of inspiration for Israëls. In the streets of his native city of Amsterdam, he met the factory girls and housemaids who populated his early works. For his later work, he prefered the elegantly dressed, sophisticated ladies in the shopping streets and large fashion houses in cities that he visited.
Fast, fluent, and very skillfully, Israëls portrayed the fleeting moments of modern life: a passing woman with a striking hat in London, the swirling skirts of dancing women in a café, or the professionally graceful pose of a cabaret performer.
P.S. If you feel like visiting London in these times and have a painterly armchair travel there, all you need to do is click here. <3