Isaac Israels, together with George Hendrik Breitner, was the leading representative of the group of Amsterdam Impressionists. He painted fragments of life he chanced across in the capital’s shopping streets, coffee houses and café-chantants, where busy urban living was played out. In a few apt charcoal lines or quick, spontaneous brushstrokes, with subtle colour accents, he captured everything he saw. Israels also painted beach scenes at Scheveningen and was an adept portrait artist. In 1903 he settled in Paris for several years.
Isaac Israels was born in Amsterdam in 1865, the son of the painter Jozef Israels. Early in his life, his family moved to The Hague. During his life as an artist Isaac exchanged ‘the grey' pallet of the Haagse school (the Hague school) for a more colourful and lively pallet. Israels was associated with the Amsterdam Impressionism movement. Between 1880 and 1882 he studied at the Royal Academy of Art, The Hague, where he met George Hendrik Breitner who was to become a lifelong friend. He returned to Amsterdam where he was asked to join the Kring der Tachtigers (the group of Eighty). Cityscapes featuring Amsterdam and Parisian street life, fashionable ladies, the interiors of cafés and sewing workshops are amongst his most popular scenes. He is considered to be one of the most important Dutch impressionists. Isaac Israels died in 1934 in The Hague.
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