Creator Bio
Jozef Israëls
1824–1911
The son of an observant Jewish family in Groningen, Holland, Jozef Israëls became one of the foremost Dutch artists of the nineteenth century. After initially painting portraits and historical subjects, in the 1850s Israëls turned to painting genre scenes in a powerful realist style, particularly depictions of the hard lives of fishermen and their families. In the 1870s, Israëls became a leader of the Hague school and achieved international renown. Late in his career, Israëls portrayed Jewish subjects, notably The Son of an Ancient People (1889) and The Jewish Wedding (1903), as well as biblical subjects.
Entries in the Posen Library by This Creator
Primary Source
The Last Breath
The Last Breath is one of the genre paintings depicting the lives of fishermen and their families for which Jozef Israëls was best known. In this scene, a woman is weeping over the body of her husband…
Primary Source
A Son of the Ancient Race
A Son of the Ancient Race is one of the few paintings with Jewish themes made by Jozef Israëls. It is from a series of paintings and drawings of secondhand clothing peddlers in Amsterdam’s Jewish…