The Modern Dutch School

(via The Outline of Art) William Orpen writes:

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The debt of te modern Dutch painters to France cannot be ignored, but we must remember that Holland possessed in Rembrandt one of the greatest of the Old Masters, and though his influence seemed to slumber for two centuries in his own country, it was shortly to prove itself to be alive once more. The greatest figure in this school is Josef Israels, and his art must be regarded as a blending of the influence of Rembrandt with that of Jean Francois Millet, plus the remarkable personality of the painter himself. Israels was one of the earliest as well as one of the greatest of the modern Dutch painters. He was born on January 27, 1824, at Groni ngen, of Hebrew parents, his father being a money-changer and broker. As a boy his first ambition was to be a rabbi; at an early age he studied Hebrew and buried himself in the Talmud, and he was well in his ‘teens before he displayed a marked leaning towards art. Meanwhile his father intended Josef for a business career, but while working under his father as a stockbroker’s clerk, Josef Israels surreptitiously obtained lessons in painting from local artists, and though their talent was but mediocre their pupil soon began to display such unmistakable gifts that parental opposition was overcome and he was allowed to go to Amsterdam to study art. He lodged with an orthodox Jewish family in the Ghetto, and all that he saw in the Jewish Quarter himself, combined with the religious paintings and etchings of Rembrandt based on the life in that quarter—which had altered so little since Rembrandt’s time—made a profound impression on him, and had a more lasting influence than anything he learnt from his master, Jan Kruseman, who, though a successful portrait-painter of his time, was a dry and uninteresting artist. In 1845 Israels left Amsterdam to study in Paris, but here again he was not very fortunate in his master. He entered the studio of Picot, who had been a pupil of David, and so far from being in touch with the ideals of the ‘men of 1830,’ he was brought up to admire historical paintings in the classical style. When Israels returned to Amsterdam in 1848 he was chiefly influenced by the French historical painter Delaroche, and he began painting historical and dramatic subjects in which, beneath the French polish, the influence of Rembrandt was nevertheless discernible. But Israels had not yet found himself, and it was some years before he did. The critical period in the artistic career of Israels was about 1856. In 1855 he showed in the Paris Salon a historical picture ‘The Prince of Orange for the first time opposing the Execution of the Orders of the King of Spain’; in 1857 his exhibits at the Paris Salon were ‘Children by the Sea’ and ‘Evening on the Beach,’ two tender impressions of commonplace, everyday scenes on the coast neat Katwijk. These last pictures are by the Israels we know; the pictures of 1855 might have been by almost any historical painter of the period. How did this change come, and what brought it about?

It was life, not art nor any artist, that changed the whole spirit of Israels painting. He had a serious illness while he was living at Amsterdam, and when convalescent went to Zantvoort, a little fishing village close to Haarlem, to recruit his health. He lodged there with a ship’s carpenter, and living the life of these simple, kindly seafaring folk, Israels was struck by the drama, pathos, and tragedy in the common lot. At Zantvoort he made the same discovery that Millet had made at Barbizon, namely that to a sympathetic and understanding spectator the common life of the people even in a remote, secluded village is as full of romance, thrills, and tragedy as the pages of any history book. Israels discovered that ‘the events of the present are capable of being painted and the sorrows of the poor are as deep as the tragic fate of ancient heroes.’ A new vein of artistic expression was now opened to him, and henceforward he painted the life of the poor and humble, and found in typical, everyday episodes motives for expressing with peculiar intensity his wide human sympathy.

The Modern Dutch School (continued)