Jozef Israëls

"He [the painter J.A. Kruseman in Amsterdam] is very amicable with his students without exposing his mastery to disdain. I sometimes see him painting from time to time. And I almost visit daily his studio. You must know that his students don't work in the same room where the big man is staying.. .Sometimes one or two days pass that he doesn't see our work, he let follow the students their own way most of the time.. .Thanks God he tells me I have feeling and talent. (translation from original Dutch text: Fons Heijnsbroek)."

"Lord, oh Lord, will I return to you once, being a genuine artist. Will all those Art lovers once behold my works with reverence and the laurel of Art then adorn my head.. .I experience so ardently all the beauty of my noble career.. .And once again I call to you, it would be much better not to live at all than being disappointed in my feeling. (translation from original Dutch text: Fons Heijnsbroek)."

"It certainly will please you to read that after my small painting ['First Love', c. 1856] what you have seen in Rotterdam, a large lithography is being made now by Lord Mouilleron, France's first lithographer.. .It becomes very beautiful. (translation from original Dutch text: Fons Heijnsbroek)."

"The title [of an album with prints of Israels and poems after his pictures, made by Nicolaas Beets ] will not be I hope 'Kroost der zee' ['Offspring of the Sea']. I think this is an insufferable dissonance. Call it 'Sketches from Fisher's life - of B to J.' I think that is the best, the simplest and the most attractive name. Also the word 'to' gives me justice, otherwise people will think that I made them [his pictures] after Beets and not Beets [his poems] after me. (translation from the original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek)"

"I take advantage of a painting that I now have at the Paris' exhibition. 3 orphan girls who are sewing in an interior room. I have sold [it] there for a nice price and have heard some interesting reviews published about it. (translation from the original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek)"

"..I would like to ask your advice as a friend, namely whether you believe I should submit my painting 'Ouden en Jongen' [Old and Young ones'] to Brussels [exhibition] or not. I thought it was a nice painting, but now I read in the Handelsblad that it is so bad. What is truth about that. Please do me the favor to sent me some words sans facon [straight forward], what is your opinion about this. (translation from the original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek)"

"Take care for purity in the paint and not so stinky thick of grease, thin, thin, thin! And just on the light [parts in the painting] here and there a small push of thick [paint].. ..thick house-interiors are unpleasant - long drawing before you start and arrange pleasantly together all things before you start to paint - if the money does not bother you, it is always useful to visit Rott. [Rotterdam]. (translation from the original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek)"

"In this Summer time of ours with Scheveningen on the shore the bathing time and the hot weather I did very few things.. ..was only busy calculating my studies [for later paintings] and to see what I should do.. ..an interior with some figures an outside Schevening shore scene a scene with sentiment of feeling or a picture quite after nature so natural as if it was the old dutch school [17th century].. ..I hope the next days will bring me a safe outcome from the turbulations in my head, all is so fine and beautiful to do.. [original text by Israëls]"

"That's how it is One day two paintings were hanging, Right opposite each other Really colorful and beautiful the one And the other simple and honest * That simplicity and truth are the characteristics of science and of art. Well, people can not understand that. It was to the tinsel that they gave their favor. (translation from the original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek)"

"That is always difficult [making a repetition of an sold painting] and can only become a potboiler. (translation from the original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek)"

"No, the Dutchman is not cold, not insensitive, our people are still full of enthusiasm for what is noble and good. Holland above all! We artists, from Rembrandt to Maris, rave over our country. We find our Holland a delicious beautiful country with its meadows, its beaches, its sea, its domestic interiors, its figures, peasants, farmers, Jews, merchants, everything is similar picturesque as it is all just up for grabs. The most beautifully in the Netherlands is however Amsterdam, that delicious spacious Amsterdam, which is expressing so much and uniting so much in itself. (translation from the original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek)"

"..isn't it stupid that what you were writing in your article is still understood by so few people. Among others there was somebody - I believe in the [magazine] 'Nieuws van de Dag' -, who thought the 'Old woman in front of the hearth' [painting of Israels].. ..- how beautifully painted - was as sickening subject. - Furthermore, Alberd. Thijm [Dutch art-critic and very critical of Israel's' often applied 'dejection'] was also raving strongly about my pulling down of the togs of the poor people. Well-roared, lion, I thought - well understood [ironic!] for what reason I painted it.. (translation from the original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek)"

"I heard nothing from his excellence [Mr. Keiller bought a picture of 1000 pond and sent Israëls the money but no word about the picture].. .I am sure he will be satisfied by it when he hears it is good. I have some practice in those matters of amateurs. The best pictures are the worst for them naturally. They have not the tools to understand it, but when they hear other saying it is fine, they make a high breast saying 'I' ordered that picture.."

"You cannot know at all what will comes out of you because all your knowledge is running otherwise. What you do not know and what you thought that there would not come at all, that comes out and appears at once, sometimes with a curse and a sigh, and there you have it. - Everything ends well. I made things that I had forgotten for twenty five years. At first I knew them too well, but then I forgot them, I 'had to' forget them. And then I made them. - If some work does not becomes beautiful, well, then you go back to do something else. Worrying doesn't help at all. It will be better later? No, you should not say such things, because you don't know anything about 'becoming better'. (translation from the original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek)"

"I want to put over my emotions in the spectator, - I want to make him fascinated by the scene, which I have not only seen with my naked eyes, but which I have seen moving deep inside myself. (translation from the original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek)"

"As the paintings the 'Night Watch' and the 'Staalmeesters' [famous works of Rembrandt ] are showed now [in the Rijksmuseum, 1894] it is clear to everyone that they have searched but, indeed messed with it, to enable these paintings to do what they can do [visually]. But you see, they did not find a good solution just because they appreciated the museum itself [a rather new building, then!] higher than the paintings themselves. I told at the very first opening of the Rijksmuseum [1885] already everyone who wanted to listen to me: in this room, where the Night Watch' is hanging now, it can never comes to its full right.. ..There must be built for the 'Night Watch' and for the 'Staalmeesters' a separate room each .. ..[with] standing light and the paintings positioned on an easel or standard behind.. ..I just want to add here, that my own studio can serve as a very special model.. ..concerning the sizes and the lighting."

"There are people who think that it [the Watch', in the Rijksmuseum, 1884] is placed beautifully, - it shines, it just roars like a fairground attraction - but is that the way that the greatest art ought to be exhibited? After all, it is unnecessary to add something to the already so strong [light-dark] effect and to the compressing character of the composition, but one must know, learn and feel what Rembrandt really is about. It is no fun or a shout, it is serious and broad art.."

"But I have to tell you what I saw.. .I had entered a dark room [in the city Tunis], lit by a small, elongated horizontal window,. .The light cut sharply.. ..and drew itself on the stone floor.. .There behind the table was sitting the Jewish scribe with his arms forward, leaning on the parchment. He turned his lordly head in my direction.. .It was a beautiful head, delicate and translucent pale as alabaster, large and small wrinkles were lining along the small eyes and around the big curved hawk nose. A black cap covered the white skull and a low white-yellow beard lay in large tufts over the written parchment.. .two crutches lay slantingly on the floor beside him. How much I desired to get my sketchbook out.. ..but in front of the staring gaze of the scribe, I didn't find the courage to carry out my intention. (translation from the original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek)"

"You should write about me, just like you did about Degas (translation from the original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek)"

"Isaac [his son, also a painter] and Liebermann had a lot of hassle with horses at the beach during the summer [in Katwijk ] and I also got a wipe of it.. (translation from the original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek)"

"Actually I don't have any painting at home.. ..they take away everything from me, almost before it's finished.. .That Jewish scribe there, is sold to [Dutch art-seller] Buffa, and it isn't finished at all yet. And this 'Kolen lossen' is also sold.. .Then I have here 'The Mowers' - just set up.. .And that drawing here, will be a good piece too!. .That will become a large painting: a 'Jewish Wedding' - at the moment the groom puts the ring on the finger of his bride.. ..you can't see very much yet, do you? (translation from the original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek)"

"..but I must have it back [a sketch of mother with child at the breast] very soon, because I become attached to it.. .Such a sketch is a part of my life; it always stays. I use it ten or twenty times.. .It is a foundation on which I build. (translation from the original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek)"

"..on my travels, for example, abroad,. .I see things that attract me, in the works of others, - which impress me. That's what you reflect upon at times. And when you come home you think: Me too have to make something like that.. .Then you start, and when it's finished it looks like the work of that person or another.. .But your own originality doesn't get lost, - your sentiment remains!. .And this happens not only to me, - this happens to others also.. .Unintentionally you continue to build on motives of others.. (translation from the original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek)"

"..an original Jewish art can only come into existence when the Jews have own ground under their feet and live in freedom [Bainin asked him: 'is that not what Zionism wants to reach?'] Yes, Zionism is a noble thought, but who knows whether they will reach their goal? Herzl visited me [in The Hague, Oct. 1898], he is a noble man and believes in his idea. But who will know.. .Now it is our duty to fight against Antisemitism, to protest against the injustice and violence that is done to us.. ..what is the essence of Jewish art should be determined by writers and art critics: we painters must work and not philosophize. (translation from the original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek)"

"Too literary. (translation from the original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek)"

"And there we have my good rabbi.. ..he came up so tired in the studio, and then I put him down here. There was such a real seat in that guy, so with his pants slumped. That's nice, isn't it, that long black cloak with those wide folds and that slackly beer mat. He is holding the Torah role in his arm, do you see?. ..I known that old rab for a lot of years already, and with Purim and Rosh HaShanah [Jewish New Year] he comes faithfully around for his douceur [tip]. (translation from the original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek)"

"..when I heard that he would come next day [his regular art-seller Buffa, who had sent him a large frame including canvas because Israel had promised him a large painting], I put the canvas on an easel, eager to see for myself what would occur, I did already a sketch of something after nature what would just fit very well in that [large] size, but the most significant element was still wanting.. ..the lines of the sketch indicated a woman, walking along the road.. .I thought however, once more another woman with a child? I already had two on the plate [waiting already in the studio, probably], it was a road along a canal during the Evening hour and a meadow, enclose by a small tree. I then put the figures in it but I didn't like the result. That moment the Rotterdam' writer Brusse walked in with me.. ..he was looking attentive how I repainted the woman into a man on horseback.. .,but soon already I didn't like that either and I repainted it into an image of two Lovers. Mr. Brusse and I saw many beautiful things in it, although one could hardly see what was really presented. In the meantime I got teased by turmoil about this composition, and during my walk next morning I thought it was too sentimental, that Evening (hour) or those Lovers.. .I then imagined myself an old gentleman walking back home at Evening hour, I painted that image on the canvas and added a few tiny trees, and that was it. his painting 'Levens-avond / Evening of Life', 1904 ] (translation from the original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek)"

"..the owner [of the painting 'When one grows old', 1883].. ..had to hear a lot of comments about it, they called it the apotheosis of a cape, the figure much too big for the frame, etc. etc. [deleted by Israëls:] so they advised him to exchange it for one of my other works. (translation from the original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek)"

"The picture of the 'New Flower' ['Het Bloempje', 1880] is really one of those I did with much idea of having to express loveliness and youth both in human feeling and in the naturally plants of flowers, and If I may say don't you find, that I have succeed in this composition?"

"..it [his watercolor 'New Flower' ['Het Bloempje', 1880] is one of those pictures, I did my best to finish it highly, as the story is nice and pleasant [where] other pictures may be more necessarily rough or strong being paint in an other mood. But this new flower needed a tender hand and conspicuous attention for details."

"There he Rembrandt stood, when everything was on the canvas [of the 'Night Watch'], but then he shook his head.. ..In his opinion the two men [in the center of the painting: Frans Banning Cocq and Willem van Ruytenburch did not yet come forward into the foreground. Then he [Rembrandt] took up his large palette again, dicked his thickest brushes deep into the paint, and once again took on these two front figures with powerful strokes; here more depth, there more light. In this way he put everything to the test, in order to give an even more powerful relief to what needed to stand out. Then he saw that it was good, and that is how he left it. (translation from the original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek)"

"I don't believe in Jewish art. There are Jewish artists, which means, artists who are born Jewish, but that does not mean that their work is Jewish art. (translation from Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek)"

"[quoting a verse from the Torah, including some faults]: Behold, I send an angel before you, to guard you on this road, and to bring you to the place which I have prepared; Exodus 23:20. (translation from Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek)."

"The old clothing-jew [ in his painting: 'Son of the Old People', 1889 ] I made, was a Jew. But not because he was a Jew I painted him [Israëls was a Jew himself] -.. ..a painter paints like a painter and not because he is a Jew.. (translation from Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek)."

"As I hear, you are the possessors of one of my favorite paintings 'The children on the beach' and I can tell you that few pictures by me, have so much figures, busy in the subject. Therefore I mean that this picture is an unicum and I hope you will give it a good light and place in your gallery."

"Is there a difference between a Jewish sea and a non-Jewish sea? What is a Jewish way of painting? (translation from Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek)"

"The boss [her husband] is hard working, busy with a very beautiful painting ‘from darkness into light', a woman sitting on a chair with her hand in front of the face, a little love is lying innocent in the cradle, a child of about six years is sitting on her lap with the head on mother's knee; the corpse of the father is carried out by a sad flock of people; one can see the sky and the spire [through the doorway], it is 'touching' (translation from the original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek)"

"Here's a list of Dutch paintings intended for the [Paris] Salon: - Israëls, an old man: ..an old man sits in a hut by the fireplace in which a small piece of peat barely glows in the twilight. For it's a dark hut the old man sits in, an old hut with a small window with a little white curtain. His dog, who's grown old with him, sits beside him – those two old creatures look at each other, they look each other in the eye, the dog and the old man. And meanwhile the man takes his tobacco box out of his trousers pocket and he fills his pipe like that in the twilight. Nothing else – the twilight, the quiet, the loneliness of those two old creatures, man and dog, the familiarity of those two, that old man thinking.. ..that face – a melancholy, satisfied, submissive expression.. .I definitely know of no other painting than this Israëls that can stand up to Millet's Death and the woodcutter, that one can see at the same time, on the other hand I know of no other painting that could stand up to this Israëls than Millet's Death and the woodcutter, no other painting that one can see at the same time as this Israëls. Moreover, I feel in my mind an irresistible desire to bring together that painting by Israëls and that other by Millet and make them complement each other.. .Its a fabulous Israëls,."

"It seemed to you [his brother Theo van Gogh ] perhaps as if the sun shone brighter and everything had acquired a new charm. At any rate, I believe this is always the effect of a serious love [with Sien,] and that's a delightful thing.. .I can find no words for how beautiful the old courtyards are here [in The Hague]. And although Jozef Israëls does it perfectly, so to speak, I find it strange that so relatively few pay them any attention. Here in The Hague every day, so to speak, I see a world which a great many pass by and which is very different from what most [painters of the Hague School are making.. .'Oh, but those filthy folk' or 'that sort of people' - in short, expressions one wouldn't expect from a painter."

"The great master presents us here [in the painting, 'When one grows old', 1883] an uncomfortable, life-size woman who reminds me strongly of a frightening magic cow. The lines that this figure makes are as inconspicuous as possible, and in the chaos of enigmatic licks and smears one discovers here and there a genuine Israëls-like hue. (translation from the original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek)"

"That exploitation of the dejection [in Israëls' works], that celebration of sickbeds and deathbeds is mannerism [and] avoiding uplifting subjects.. ..he has to come back from that. (translation from the original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek)"

"What a pleasure is it to see such a 'Frans Hals' [because the painter Frans Hals was also painting in a loose brush-technique] - it is completely different from the paintings - there are so many of them - where everything has been smoothed out in the same painstaking way.. ..[Jozef] Israëls has a much healthier and more solid technique, like in that very old canvas [1856!] 'De visser van Zandvoort' with beautiful clair-obscure, then the technique of those who are at every spot equally smooth, flat and distinguished, because of their view, cold- colored.."

"..[that] there will always be people who will count these paintings [of Israëls] to the most remarkable expressions of nineteenth-century art.. ..what a wonderful gallery of the children of our golden beaches has the painter.. ..conjured up from his brush. (translation from the original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek)"

"The beautiful, spontaneous Israels, that is the painter when he is in his own studio; that is the talker who sometimes goes outside for a moment, as when he was walking beside me in the woods, before dinner: 'You cannot know at all what will comes out of you because all your knowledge is running otherwise.. (translation from the original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek)"

"By rough-made engravings after 'Along the Churchyard', and 'After the Storm' [some of his famous, older paintings], .. the name of the maker sounds familiar for thousands of people.. .Mr. Israëls painted life-stories and funerals and all kinds of touching figures.. .,and when he - in a later, more mature period - achieved to become a truly artistic painter, he already was the well-known Israëls and people took his works just for granted.. ..he, who got the fortune in his artist career to become famous with works of momentary importance, and who deserved later his fame once more with paintings of inestimable value. translation from the original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek)"

"Who would ever forget the sensation that once gave us [in 1884] the tremendous cold of the old woman [ in the painting 'Als men oud wordt', 1883 ].. ..[at] an almost burnt-out fire,. .What an expression in those hands.. .And what a masterpiece is that old cape.. (translation from the original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek)"

"Kann.. ..took me to the painter Israëls yesterday [in The Hague]. A small, quick, wise old little jew. He was just busy painting a harp-playing 'David and Saul. I explained Zionism and won him. He thought the idea was beautiful."

"It should not be denied that Impressionism went beyond [Jozef] Israëls. Where would he be - Israëls, if Manet could have influenced him? Isn't it in his one-sidedness to Impressionism that we find the proof for the power of his conviction? (translation from the original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek)"

"So whoever thinks it is fortunate to be known in large circles, can say that in his artist career, Mr. Israëls had the fortune to become famous with works of transient importance - and later with paintings of inestimable value he more than deserved his already acquired fame. (translation from the original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek)"

"[Jozef] Israels first became himself [as an artist] at an age when most painters have already delivered their best work, and if he had been so unlucky to dy at the age of forty, Holland would have counted one of his best sons less."