2712. THE INTERIOR OF HAARLEM CHURCH.
Johannes Bosboom (Dutch: 1817-1891).
A characteristic piece by a painter of architecture who "rendered very delicately the play of sunbeams in the interior of picturesque churches, and warm effects of light in large halls and dusky corners" (Muther).
2713. THE PHILOSOPHER.
Joseph Israels (Dutch: 1824-1911).
Joseph Israels, the head of the modern Dutch School and a painter of world-wide reputation, has been called "The Dutch Millet," and "a modern Rembrandt"; and the phrases serve to indicate his characteristics, and his place in the development of modern art. He essayed to do what Rembrandt had done triumphantly two centuries before: to paint "not accidents, but life itself." He made in Dutch art the same departure that Millet made in French: he turned from conventional themes and motives to the life around him. Like Millet, Israels made a false start in art. He went to Paris in 1845, entered the École des Beaux-Arts, showing "Achilles and Patroclus" as his probationary drawing, and on his return to Amsterdam in 1848 began to paint, as Delaroche had taught him, "historical" scenes, Calabrian brigands, and other subjects in "the grand style." His health broke down, and he was ordered change of scene. At Zandvoort, a small fishing village near Haarlem, he found his Barbizon. "He lodged with a ship's carpenter, took part in all the usages of his house-mates, and began to perceive amid these new surroundings that the events of the present are capable of being painted, that the sorrows of the poor are as deep as the tragical fate of ancient heroes, that everyday life is as poetic as any historical subject, and that nothing suggests richer moods of feeling than the interior of a fishing-hut, bathed in tender light and harmonious in colour. This residence of several months in a distant little village led him to discover his calling, and determined his future career" (Muther). He was a devoted Jew, with a deep interest in the life and character of those of his race who abound in Holland. Among them, and among the Dutch toilers of the sea, he found his vocation, in painting the tragedy, the pathos, or the simple domestic joys of humble working folk. He did this with a technical mastery and with rare insight. His power of pathetic expression is remarkable; and over his work a spirit of soft tenderness is suffused. Many, perhaps most, of his pictures are sombre, but he had an eye for youth and hope, as well as age and sorrow, and few artists have painted children with so much sympathy. His method is broad and simple; his pictures having unity of effect, and telling their own story with great directness.
Joseph Israels was born at Gröningen, in the north of Holland, and for a time was occupied in his father's business as a money-changer, but he was encouraged to draw. In 1844 he went to Amsterdam, and entered the studio of Jan Kruseman. Then, as already related, came his student-years in Paris, and his false start as an historical painter. In 1855 he was represented at the Paris Exhibition by an historical picture of the Prince of Orange. In 1857 he showed at the Salon "Children by the Sea" and "Evening on the Beach." This change of subject marks the true start in an artistic career which was continuously successful, and which was prolonged into extreme old age. In 1862 his picture of "The Shipwrecked Mariner" (see below, 2732) created a sensation at the International Exhibition in London. In 1863 he married and settled down in a house midway between The Hague and Scheveningen, facing the canal. "Here the boats with their loads of herrings pass slowly along, so that the painter has only to look out of the front windows of his house in order to see the very men and women, the boats and towing-ropes, that figure in his canvases. His work is done in a studio in his garden; here he has a glass house, in which he paints his open-air figures, and has likewise fitted up a corner of an old Dutch cottage, so that open-air scenes and interiors may be as lifelike as it is possible for an artist to render them. As you enter this studio, you perceive a little old gentleman at work, dressed in a brown velvet coat. His hair is silvery white, and his somewhat pale face is lit up with the kindliest of smiles. He speaks five or six languages in the pleasantest voice imaginable, and English is one of them."
Personally, Israels was one of the most breezy of men, full of life and vigour, genial and accessible: "as fresh in mind as a youngster in his teens, as versatile as he is amiable, able and always ready to talk on every conceivable subject of interest, ever contributing some caustic and pointed comment, yet never assuming the dictatorial and self-opinionated manner which genius often considers itself privileged to adopt. His modesty, his unfailing amiability to all, young and old, distinguished and insignificant, have served to endear Joseph Israels to all who come in contact with him. He does not care to talk much about his own achievements, but he is less reticent about those of his son Isaac, who, he declares, is a greater artist than himself." These personalia are quoted from notices which appeared in connection with the artist's 75th birthday (in the Daily News and in Israel). He had still twelve years of life; and "his was the rare satisfaction of the man who, beginning in advance of his time, creates his own public, and sees it growing stronger, larger, and more devoted as he passes from youth to middle life and thence to extreme old age. He was not consciously the founder of a school, but he had many close followers, and the modern Dutch painters, who are now so fashionable, owe their fundamental ideas to him" (Times, Aug. 15, 1911).
There are passages in Browning's Grammarian's Funeral which will suggest themselves to many readers as they study this picture of an old student writing by the light of a single candle. The picture may be compared with an earlier Dutch one of a like subject—"The Philosopher," by Bega (1481).
2714. GRANDFATHER'S BIRTHDAY.
Isabey (French: 1804-1886).
Eugène Gabriel Isabey (by whom there are several pictures in the Wallace Collection) was born in Paris, the son of the celebrated miniature-painter, Jean-Baptiste Isabey. He first appeared as a genre painter; and "amid the group of Classicists of his time, he had (says Dr. Muther) the effect of a beautiful patch of colour." He afterwards took to sea painting, having in 1830 accompanied the French expedition to Algiers as marine draughtsman.