ISRAELS, Josef.

Josef Israels
Dutch 1824-1911
Jozef Israels studied under Kruseman in Amsterdam. Israels left Holland for Paris in 1845, living there for three years and frequenting the salons of Vernet and Delaroche. Initially influenced by Romanticism, Jozef Israels first established his reputation as a historical painter, later to landscape painting. It was at the Paris Exposition of 1878 that Jozef Israels showed for the first time powerful studies of peasant life of which he is now famed for.
Probably the most important member of the Hague School, Israels shaped the course of Dutch art during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. He created thirty etchings , the earliest dating from 1870. As an etcher, as in other aspects of his art, he is considered a master. "The Hearth" stands as one of Jozef Israels's largest and most impressive etchings. With a strong network of rapidly drawn lines and heavily shaded areas he creates a telling work of art from a humble scene.
Critics have regularly compared the etchings of Jozef Israels to those of Millet, Van Gogh and (looking forward) to those of Kathe Kollwitz.

HUBERT, H.J: The Etched Work of Jozef Israels. (BOOK)

The Hearth